That is who you are
by Rafxsulfuslovestory
Summary: After defeated Drago Bludvist, Hiccup became the chief of Berk. It's now time for Hiccup and Astrid to think about their future. But as everything was going well, something happened that was going to change their lives forever...
1. Chapter 1

_**Here the translation of my fanfiction "Voilà qui tu es" ! Thanks my friend Steph to translate it ! (my-heart-is-bigger-on-the-inside. tumblr. com)**_

 _ **I want to start the story like that I hope you'll like it !**_

* * *

This is Berk. At first view, it's looks like any other island, but it hides something bigger. Berk is our homeland to us vikings. But it is dragons' too. The land is the guardian of peace that exists between us. I've lived here since I was born and I've seen this big rock lost in the middle of the ocean evolve. It's thanks to the dragons that peace is possible and I will fight for it to continue. Because right now, I'm not a simple inhabitant of this village anymore, I'm Chief. My mother returned to live with us, and with all her knowledge about the dragons, she is a great help. Nowadays, I have to take care of the village's security, but with Drago's threat out of the way and since Toothless has become the Alpha, we are rather calm. I admit that my new responsibilities scare me a little, but they would have come at one point or another… I just wish things had happened differently. However, my father saved my life and sacrificed himself for me. Now a part of my heart is gone with him… Already a year has passed. It's already been a year since my dad is not among us in this world…

This morning, Toothless, my mother and I were in the main room for breakfast. I was drinking my yack milk.

"So? Not too anxious?" asked my mother with a touch of humour.

"Hum… No, no it's okay… I'm fine." I replied between two sips, not very convinced of what I was saying.

"You know, you have the right to be. Your father and I were too. Him more than me actually!" she laughed.

"I just hope everything goes well." I said honestly.

I finished in a hurry what I was eating and went out, followed by Toothless. I was sure that my mother was smiling. It was still early and I had was meeting Astrid to have an early flight in order to see each other a little before. Once outside, I put my metal leg in the mechanism of the missing aileron of my dragon to take off. Toothless and I were by now into the clouds, I really loved this sense of freedom. And to think that six years earlier, we couldn't imagine only for an instant that all of this would be possible… A scream, Stormfly's. _She caught up to me_ , I thought. _No, she joined me,_ I rectified for myself.

"Where do you plan on going like that?" Astrid said with a smile.

"Nowhere, I was just warming up as I was waiting for you." I answered with a warm smile.

"Want to race?" she announced as she started to sped up.

She obviously didn't want to talk, and neither did I. She simply wanted to let off steam before the long day ahead. I told Toothless to pick up the pace. He didn't need to be asked twice and tried to overtake Astrid and Stormfly.

We were flying fast. Too fast. Thank the gods there was no speed limits on Berk, otherwise Astrid and I would've blown off the charts. I got past her, and she gave me one of her dark looks that were enough to make me smile. Astrid was really competitive, which made the race even more exciting the win. I loved to see her like this, that determined look in her eyes at that precise moment was one of the things that I loved about her. We completed each other, she was everything that I was not, she was the other half of me. _I don't know what I would do without her_.

"Come on, Stormfly! Just one last push! We're almost there!"

Astrid had caught me again. She was so good at this… She ended up winning the race.

"I'm the best!" she exclaimed as she dismounted her Deadly Nadder.

"Yes, as always!" I pointed out.

"Don't make fun of me. You win just as often as I do."

She came closer to me and gave me a swift poke in the ribs. I was used to it by now, and I knew exactly what came next. I took her by waist and kissed her with meaning. She kissed back with force and passion. That was how I liked her: sweet and strong at the same time. The kiss broke and I we held each other close.

"I love you, Astrid."

She smiled against me.

"Me too, Hiccup."

"Are you okay?" I asked her.

"Yeah, don't worry about me. How about you, are you okay?" She said seriously with a hint of worry in her voice.

I scratched my head.

"Of… of course!" I answered a bit too untruthfully.

She stared at me intently and squinted her eyes.

"Well, okay… I'm a bit anxious, it's true." I admit, looking her straight in the eyes at the end of my sentence.

"Hiccup, don't worry. You know, I'm scared too… The thing that bothers me is that we'll be apart this morning, on our wedding day!"

"We won't be apart very long, don't worry. It's just… all this… I wish this day could be different… Like, we could leave on dragon back after the ceremony!"

Astrid burst out laughing, she leaned in towards me and pushed me over backwards. She was so spontaneous, I loved that. Now on top of me, she laughed again and fell on my chest. She lifted up her face and kissed me. I couldn't help but smiled.

"Seriously Hiccup" she carried on. "We can't do that… The village is counting on us and besides, you are the Chief!"

"I know all that… But it would be so good, just the two of us… I just have the feeling that my best friend won't witness the best moment of my life."

"Stop it Hiccup!" she almost shouted. "You know as well as I do that having dragons at the ceremony would be unmanageable! Really Hiccup, don't you think you're over reacting?"

"Yeah, you're right. I think I'm just being taken over by nerves."

"It's normal to be apprehensive… After all, maybe this whole flight idea can be arranged." she said with a smile.

We stood there a long time, just smiling at each other like that. She leant forward, and as I met her halfway our lips met again. I pulled her closer and held on to her tightly.

Here we were. Time was ticking and I wasn't with Hiccup. Dressed in a long white tunic, I wasn't in my element… I much preferred my metal shoulder pads and my spiked skirt. I missed my axe too. I felt so light, too light. As if I was a prisoner of this dress. My mother and Valka were working with my hair. My strands were long and loose, and a silver tiara was taking place as my mother and Hiccup's braided my mane. I had to admit, the result was quite elaborate.

"She looks like Freya herself!" Valka exclaimed.

"You look beautiful Astrid." my mother told me as she looked at me with pride.

"Thank you." I answered them both in a tone which I hoped was grateful.

As well as my spoken thanks I hugged them both affectionately, to reassure them but also myself. I heard my mother whisper in my ear "I'm so happy for you Astrid".

The excitement was slowly taking over me. I was going to become Hiccup's wife. Hiccup and me, together forever. When we had to leave each other's company earlier I could only think of how much I wanted to stay, stay with him, with the dragons. Free and locked in each other's embrace. I wished time could have stopped in that moment. But we would soon be together again.

* * *

Alone in my own house, I was a bit bored. I'd left Toothless with the other dragons that we'd kept away for the special day. I couldn't help but wonder what this day would be like if my father was here. Would he have comforted me? Even if he would have made me even more anxious than I already was, I would've liked him to be there. I heard the door squeak, as Snotlout and Fishlegs came in.

"How's it going?" asked Fishlegs with a smile.

"Okay…"

"Did you get out your father's sword?" Snotlout added with a questioning look.

"No, not yet, I was on my way to get it actually…"

"You know you'll need it for the ceremony later."

"Yes Fishlegs, I know!"

"You look on edge, am I right?" asked Snotlout.

He'd guessed my troubles, which was surprising coming from Snotlout. But I wasn't going to mourn my situation. I was a Viking for Thor's sake! Even if I was sad to not have my father at my wedding, I had to keep my head high.

"I miss my father, that's all." I simply said.

I left them there and headed towards the room that was once my father's bedroom. It was as if he was still here. Even though my mother slept here now, it still seems as though a couple occupied the room. I'd left his belongings as they were and added a few of his personal items, such as his sword. I took it lightly out of it's stand and held it in front of me with two hands. It was heavy. I admired it, it's strong iron pure and robust. As a tear rolled down my cheek, I thought of him and of how he would look at me if he could. I wiped it away with the back of my hand and joined Fishlegs and Snotlout.

"I'm ready."

* * *

The place chosen for the ceremony was beautiful, outside surrounded by the forest. I was at my father's arm as I waited for Hiccup who, I found, was taking longer than I would've liked. I let a few sighs out occasionally, I was impatient.

Finally, he arrived, dressed in Stoiks chief furs. He was handsome. This great and strong man I was going to marry, my Hiccup. He smiled at me, and I smiled back. My father gave me his sword and I bowed to receive it, as tradition dictated. Then I got up and Hiccup took my hand. We walked hand in hand down the aisle created by the villagers who showered us with fern sprigs so that the Gods may protect us. Once up near Gothi who was in front of the whole assembly, we bowed before her to receive the Gods blessing. She drew on our foreheads Thor's hammer, and we turned to face each other. We took out our swords at the same time and proceeded to the exchange. I grasped the sword Hiccup held out: Stoik's.

Astrid was breathtaking. I'd never seen her in a dress before, nor with her hair so intricately braided. It all suited her. The white of her tunic made her blue eyes stand out. She was perfect. My perfect future wife. We simultaneously got out our rings and placed them on our new swords. I put the ring of her finger with trembling fingers. I knew that it was just good old Astrid, that everything was going well, I couldn't help being nervous. She then put on my ring, and blushed. I smiled to reassure her, and so did she. Finally, our fingers intertwined over our joined swords.

"Astrid, I swear to love and protect you whatever may happen to us."

"Hiccup, even though I don't need protecting" she proclaimed, "I swear to love you and assist you as best I can."

"I love you." I smiled.

"I love you too Hiccup."

She launched herself in my arms and we kissed long, passionately, divinely.

* * *

That kiss was even stronger than our vows, it perfectly translated our feelings for one another. This was it, we were married.

A tradition on Berk since many a decade was that there was to be a speed race to determine the strongest of us. My team was made up of myself and the twins, and Hiccup's team included Fishlegs and Snotlout. The losing team had to serve drinks to the other for the rest of the night. But this year the race was going to be slightly different because we had dragons. I'd convinced Valka to bring the dragons at the end of the ceremony. We each called our dragon and they arrived swiftly.

"First to the Great Hall!" I shouted.

Hiccup threw me a wry smile before mounting Toothless and taking off. He was surprised and happy. I took to the air fast.

Astrid was flying fast but it didn't take long for me to catch up with her. She narrowed her brows and suddenly pulled on her dress, surprising me, revealing a top and trousers underneath. I recognized the woman I just married, as spontaneous as always. I soon got overtaken, she must have done it on purpose. Snotlout and Fishlegs would be serving the drinks tonight…

I unsaddled Toothless and gently stroked him before hurrying towards the Great Hall where Astrid had put her dress back on as if nothing had happened. It was customary that the husband accompany his wife into the hall. Arrived at her level, I took her hand and bowed:

"If Milady would have the kindness of entering…" I say with a posh tone.

She swiftly hit me on the head while whispering "idiot", but let me guide her and moved forward. When we entered the Great Hall, everyone was cheering and shouting our names, viking style. We were soon in front of the whole assembly and my mother quickly came towards us, the famous cup of mead in her hands to make us drink from it. She proudly thrust it in the air above us as we bowed once again. The feast could now start.

In the end, the party was quite enjoyable. Duals were organized and Fishlegs and Snotlout were competing to impress Ruffnut, which was useless as she still only had eyes for Eret. But Astrid and I danced. We danced until we lost our heads, and twirled till we saw double, but we liked it, we were happy. The music was good, except when Gobber started to sing, but we all laughed together. He was dancing with my mother, who seemed to be happy for me, even though she missed my father terribly. And still we danced, even when my peg leg started playing up, we kept on dancing. Until Gobber called me over with a wink, and I went over to him.

"Ah, Gobber. How's it going, enjoying the festivities?" I asked a bit nervously, awaiting his answer.

"Good, good" he said ironically. "Really Hiccup, what are you waiting for?!" he insisted.

"I have no idea what you're talking about…"

"Oh yes you do, you're just too afraid to act as usual! Get out of here you two! Your dragons are waiting outside." he continued, his eyes turning to Astrid.

He sighed.

"Thanks." I tell him with a smile.

I head towards Astrid, almost running, take her by her fine waist and pull her in for a kiss. I shoot a knowing look to my mother and Gobber, then we went out. As he said, Toothless and Stormfly were there, waiting for us, ready to go.

"Where are you taking me?" Astrid asked me.

I smiled crookedly.

"You'll see!"

We take off. It was early evening and night had not fallen yet. It was the end of summer and the weather was warm, unlike usually. Finally, we arrived at our destination: it was a secluded corner of Berk, unknown of anyone except for me and Astrid. I'd discovered it by chance with Toothless, and Astrid followed me and found us there once. Since then, it's been our secret place, where we would go whenever we wanted to be alone. It was ours. She smiled as she dismounted her dragon, she was happy. She came and found her place in my arms.

"You could not have chosen a better place."

We looked each other in the eyes, each looking with intensity at each speckle of light in the eyes of the other. In that moment, her lips found mine and we shared a long and heated kiss. I held her by her waist, pulling her as close as possible, her hands were on my neck, and I felt a longing rise in me like I felt it rise in her. However we broke apart just long enough to sit on the edge of the nearby cliff overlooking the endless ocean. The day was soon going to give way to night. I took Astrid's hand and intertwined my fingers in hers.

"I wish this day could last forever." she said as she rested her head on my shoulder.

"Me too Astrid, me too…"

I kissed her on the forehead, meaning what I said with all that I was.


	2. Chapter 2

_**Here my chapter 2 translated by my friend (my-heart-is-bigger-on-the-inside. tumblr. com), thanks her ! I hope you will like it !**_

 ** _So read and reviews !_**

* * *

The wind in my hair, the fresh morning air blowing in my face, I was free. Straddling Toothless, I flew over Berk as dawn was bringing in the new day. Soon the sun would be fully up and my night fury and I never missed it, nor the sunset for that matter. It was our little ritual, a flight every morning and every evening. Toothless rose higher in the sky, over the clouds, and I wanted to spend as long as possible with him before my responsibilities as chief required my attention. I affectionately pat his head.

"What do you say, bud? Shall we try it?"

Toothless grunted.

"Then let's go!" I shouted.

I untied myself from the saddle and let myself fall into the open. Welfare. My night fury was soon by my side, and we pulled up at the last second just before crashing into the ocean. I shouted out in glee and Toothless roared while firing a few plasma bolts to express his good mood. My 'wings' now spread out, I was flying. We were both flying in the light of dawn, and I never wanted it to end. However, duty called. We landed on a small island not far from Berk and went home. I dismounted my dragon and let him go find the other dragons. I was headed towards the great hall when something, or someone, gripped my arm. It was Astrid, and she didn't look very happy.

"Why didn't you wait for me?!" she accused me.

"What are you talking about?" I asked, disbelievingly.

"You promised we'd fly together this morning!"

"It's just… You were asleep Astrid, so… I didn't want to wake you." I tried to defend myself.

She gave me a violent punch on the arm and ran off, leaving me alone with my thoughts. I stood there, with a bruised arm, feeling pathetic. Astrid was already far so I went into the Great Hall for my daily speech. When I entered everyone was waiting, I was late. Gobber threw me a furious look, full of blame. I stood before the assembly, shy as ever. A deadly silence took over the room. I began to speak.

"Hmm, err, Hello..."

Gobber sighed and slapped his palm to his forehead.

"Right then, winter stores have been filled, but we're missing wood. We'd, hmm, need to send the dragons to fetch some. Snotlout, Tuffnut, can you deal with that?"

"Not a problem." replied Snotlout.

"Good. Fishlegs, are you still updating the book of dragons with all your new findings on the neighbouring islands?"

"Of course, don't worry Hiccup, I'm on it."

"Perfect. Err, any questions?"

Everyone scrambled forward with a thousand and one questions. About the dragons, how to take care of them, if I was going to renovate some of the infrastructures, when the next dragon race would be, all kinds of things. I tried to answer as many as I could to try to please everyone, but it was difficult. It was at times like these I wanted nothing more than to be able to take to the skies with Toothless and go exploring like before, but I didn't have time. I was more than happy to inherit my father's throne, but I needed freedom. When the assembly finally thinned out, I left towards the forge to help Gobber. I bumped into Mildew who looked at me with a rudeness I knew only too well.

"It's even worse than when your father used to lead this village..." he sighed.

He left, and so did I. _Good old Mildew, he'll never change!_ I thought to myself. I headed towards the forge when my old master was waiting for me.

"We've got some work to do today!" he announced.

He showed all that needed to be done and started gathering my tools. As I started work on a new saddle, he called me out.

"What happened to you this morning?"

"I was late, that's all." I answered, fearing the next question.

"Mmh, there's something else!" he said, shaking his head.

Seeing as I wasn't answering, he continued.

"Oh… something happened between you and your lass!"

I huffed.

"Yeah, you could say that."

"What happened?"

"Pff, she got mad because I didn't wait for this morning to go flying with Toothless. It's ridiculous! She was asleep… I thought I was doing the right thing by letting her rest a bit longer!"

In my frustration I hit hard the metal I was working on.

"Careful!" he warned, then gave me a pat on the back. "Don't worry, you'll talk to her and everything will be alright."

"You're right, I'll do that."

"Yes but not straight away! You've still got work to do!"

He went back to his business, and I started thinking about what I was going to tell Astrid. It was warm in the forge, too warm. Normally I was used to it, but I was impatient to see Astrid and I couldn't wait any longer. I was headed towards the exit when I was stopped in my tracks by Bucket and Mulch.

"Hiccup! We were just looking for you…"

"I'm sorry, I really have to go! Can it wait?" I hurriedly said.

"Actually it's about Bucket, his bucket's a bit tight and…"

I'd already stopped listening, too excited to find Astrid.

She was at the stables feeding the sick dragons. I went up behind her and gently gripped her waist.

"Are you still mad at me?"

She turned round.

"No… but don't ever do that to me again, understand?"

"Astrid, you can't seriously blame me for letting you sleep longer?"

She broke free of me.

"That's not what this is about Hiccup!"

"What is this about then?" I interrupted, eyes wide open.

"I get the feeling that you don't want me to come with you… anywhere! It's like… you don't want to involve me! And you know how much I hate being left out!" she said indignantly.

"It's not that, it's just… I need a bit of freedom! I feel trapped in this world, okay? I can't take any more of these responsibilities."

"I warned you about this Hiccup, I told you it wouldn't be easy. It's like for the exploration map! I know you kept it with you instead of letting me continue what we started!"

"Hold on, you're the one who told me to forget about the map! And by the way, I started it, with Toothless."

"Well of course! So I'm the bad guy now? You can see that I didn't get it all right about your dragon, because you still ride him! Just admit it, you prefer Toothless to me, don't you?"

"At least we agree on one thing."

Astrid cursed. She deserved that, I was angry. Suddenly she slapped me hard across the face, I didn't see that one coming.

Soon I realised we weren't alone, almost the whole village had witnessed our fight. I was on my last nerve; this situation was getting completely out of hand. My mind was made up, I called for Toothless and he came right away, I mounted his back and we took off.

Once in the air, I let out a shout to evacuate the pressure, even though deep down I knew it was useless, and I let myself lay down of my dragon.

"Oh Toothless… If only you know how stupid I feel. I just stormed out in front of the whole village… and Astrid…"

I sighed.

"I've ruined everything… And to think not so long ago we had so many plans and projects together… Oh Toothless, I've ruined everything!"

 _A morning like any other on Berk, except for one thing: it was sunny. Not too cold, the perfect day for a few excursions. I got up early to leave, as should have Astrid, but she was still in bed._

 _"_ _So you're staying in bed?"_

 _"_ _Mmm, sleep…" she said between two mumbles._

 _I shook her lightly while looking at her lovingly._

 _"_ _That is not worthy of Astrid Hofferson!"_

 _"_ _Haddock" she replied, opening her eyes with a smile. "It's Astrid Haddock."_

 _My little trick had worked._

 _"_ _Come on, up you get! It's a beautiful day! Ideal conditions for an expedition!"_

 _"_ _Hiccup… I'm tired, let me sleep…"_

 _Astrid, tired? Impossible. Either she really didn't want to come, or she really was tired, and that was worrying. I felt her forehead._

 _"_ _Is something wrong?"_

 _"_ _No, it's okay. I just need some rest. Go one without me, I'll be fine."_

 _"_ _Are you sure? You know I can stay here if you want, there'll be other opportunities."_

 _"_ _It's not everyday the sun shines on Berk, go enjoy it! Don't worry about me."_

 _"_ _Well, are you sure you don't mind?"_

 _"_ _No, now go have fun!"_

 _I kissed her on the head and quickly joined Toothless with Snotlout, Fishlegs, and the Twins who were coming with us. The day was calm, and we discovered a new island full of deadly nadders. It was a shame Astrid wasn't with us, Stormfly and her would've loved it. We then headed back to Berk where the village was waiting for us. To my surprise, Astrid wasn't on the town square with the other Vikings, I couldn't see her anywhere. I landed next to my mother who was watching over the village with Gobber during my absence. She smiled at me._

 _"_ _So, did you find any new islands? Any particular findings?" She enquired._

 _"_ _Err, yeah, yeah! But, hmm, do you know where Astrid is?"_

 _She smiled again._

 _"_ _She's with Gothi, she was a bit nauseous this afternoon during dragon training but she's…"_

 _"_ _What? I'm going to see her right away!"_

 _I got on Toothless again and sped towards Gothi's hut. We were in front in no time at all, I dismounted clumsily and rushed to the door, just as Astrid was coming out._

 _"_ _Astrid!" I exclaimed as soon as I saw her. "Is everything okay?"_

 _"_ _Yes Hiccup, couldn't be better!" she replied, all giddy._

 _I looked at her, not understanding._

 _"_ _What? How come? But you… What's happening?"_

 _"_ _Hiccup, we're having a baby" she announced with emotion._

 _I took a while to process the information. We were going to be parents. I looked at her with love spilling out of my very soul and smiled widely. I spun her round in my arms then pulled her close, kissing her tenderly._

 _"_ _Wow Astrid, that's wonderful!"_

 _The weeks following the good news were happy and peaceful, we'd announced it to the whole village who had shown itself to be very enthusiastic. Astrid seemed to glow, she was fulfilled and happy, and she was beautiful. Every morning over breakfast I watched her, eating more than usual, with admiration. I loved what this pregnancy was doing to her, she was calm and dreamy, and her happiness was the only thing in the world that mattered to me._

 _I came home one night after a long day of chief work to find Astrid getting warm near the fire._

 _"_ _Good evening my beloved Chief!"_

 _She kissed me on the cheek as I sat next to her, and I took her in my arms._

 _"_ _Are you okay? Not too tired?"_

 _"_ _Hiccup, I'm not an invalid…"_

 _"_ _I know, I know! Sorry. I just wanted to know you were okay."_

 _"_ _I'm fine. I've got a bit of a belly ache but it'll pass" she said with a light smile._

 _"_ _I hope so." I smiled back at her._

 _Later we went to bed. In the middle of the night, I felt Astrid toss and turn, eventually getting up._

 _"_ _Astrid? What are you doing? Is everything okay?"_

 _"_ _Yes, yes… I'll be back in a moment."_

 _I put my head back on the pillow. I woke up with a start when I heard small whimpers from the adjoining room. I ran out and got to the door leading to the noises._

 _"_ _Astrid? What's wrong? Can I come in?"_

 _"_ _Hiccup… leave me alone…" she answered between two sobs._

 _To hear her cry was too much, I couldn't leave her there without doing anything. I decided to enter. I found Astrid on the floor, scared as blood was gushing around her. I felt paralysed by the terrifying situation. Astrid was trying in vain to hide, but she was in bad shape… I bent down to be on her level._

 _"_ _Astrid, let me help you."_

 _She couldn't hold back her tears any longer, she flung herself in my arms and I held her tight. Sobs were ripping her apart, she was terrified. I'd never seen her like this before… it was the first time I'd seen Astrid cry._

 _"_ _It's… it's a sign… I'm not meant to be a mother… I'll never carry, it's a sign of the gods…" she cried._

 _"_ _Astrid, it's not your fault, it doesn't mean anything. You'll get pregnant again…"_

 _"_ _Oh Hiccup, I'm so sorry!"_

 _No Astrid, I'm the one that's sorry._

My world fell apart that day. When the village found out they were all very supportive, although some mumbled that Astrid could never give a heir to Berk. This was the real reason we were fighting. And was I doing all the way out here? We needed to talk.

"Toothless, we're going back to Berk!"

As I finished my sentence, a bolt of thunder struck, followed by many other strikes lighting up the sky that was now black: a storm was upon us. At that moment I realised what Bucket was saying this morning, about his bucket being tight! What an idiot I was… The rain was starting to fall heavily and a strong wind picked up, pulling my dragon and I into a whirlwind we could not escape.

"Toothless! Be careful! Ah!" I shouted.

We fell into the open. After the fall, we woke up on an unknown island. The sky was lighter… We'd obviously blacked out.

"We sure were lucky there, bud…"

He grunted as if to express his agreement. We got up to explore the new island so as to gather some information about where we were. I set forward, followed by Toothless, when suddenly a sound came from our right. What we saw in that moment largely exceeded all we'd ever seen before.


	3. Chapter 3

_**Here's my third chapter! Thanks a lot my dear translator ( my-heart-is-bigger-on-the-inside. tumblr )! Thank you for your review guys and I hope you'll like this nex chapter! So read and reviews!**_

* * *

He was gone. Why did he always have to run away from his problems? I wasn't surprised when he flew off with Toothless after the public humiliation I put him through, but he still wasn't back and night had almost fallen… It was probably the biggest fight we'd ever had, but it surely wouldn't be the last… I was already feeling remorseful. I never should've slapped him like that in front of everyone, then he wouldn't have left and… I just wanted us to talk this morning, we really needed to but he always avoided the subject. It was so difficult talking with him!

Sitting astride Stormfly, I stayed focused on my thoughts awaiting Hiccup's return, but he was still nowhere in sight. From afar, I heard someone call my name: it was Valka.

"Astrid! Stay inside, you've been out long enough."

"No, I must wait a bit longer, it's my fault if he's gone…"

She came closer and put a hand on my shoulder.

"Astrid, he'll be back, don't worry."

Voices came from the sky, it was Snotlout and the twins who'd gone searching for Hiccup. They touched down next to us.

"What happened?" I asked. "Where's Hiccup?"

"We couldn't go very far, we got ambushed by a storm from the north." answered Snotlout.

"Yeah, a mega storm! With booms! And bangs! And lightning!" said Tuffnut.

"The kind that burns you up in two seconds flat!" added Ruffnut.

"No, one second!"

"You're gonna see how many seconds it takes me to knock you down!" I threatened the twins with a dark look.

They exchanged a look and swallowed.

"Do you think Hiccup got caught in the storm?" asked Valka, worried.

"It's possible… In the meantime, it's headed for Berk…" answered Snotlout.

"We need to go inside. We'll continue the search when the storm has passed."

"But we can't just leave him!"

"Astrid, it's too dangerous! Don't provoke Thor!"

"I think Thor's already angry!" I say, hands over my ears to show how deafening the thunder already was.

"Astrid!" she shouted.

I was already high in the sky. We rose even higher to get above the clouds.

"Come on Stormfly! A few bolts of lightning aren't gonna stop us, are they girl?"

She roared, which was a good sign. We managed to slalom between the bolts without harm. I could now see exactly where I was going, thanks to a technique Hiccup had taught me. I missed him so much, I needed him and he needed me.

"Oh Stormfly, I'm so scared for him…"

 _Hiccup where are you?_

* * *

It was incredible, I couldn't believe my eyes it seemed so unreal, but I knew I wasn't dreaming. Toothless and I were seeing the same thing: a night fury.

It was hardly smaller than Toothless and had blue eyes… I was captivated by the splendid creature that I felt I knew, but that I had so much to learn from. Toothless slowly approached it: he didn't seem scared, on the contrary he seemed curious. He edged closer and closer, the two dragons were soon head to head: they turned in circles, giving each other questioning looks, their heads tilting left and right inquisitively, all their senses were awakened. It was as if a silent conversation was going on between them. They sniffed each other and started growling, but in what seemed a playful manner. They continued to circle each other playfully and rolled over in the high grass. It was then I noticed the blue eyed night fury was actually a female. Toothless had obviously made a friend.

I went towards them, and as they stood up I placed my hand on the lady night fury's head. To my surprise, she let me approach promptly.

"See that bud, she's a lot more docile than you were!"

Toothless hit me in the legs with his tail, making me fall over. His throaty groans resembling laughter, I got up and laughed with him.

Still above the clouds astride Stormfly, I searched for Hiccup. I was lost, he was nowhere to be seen and I didn't know which way to turn; he could be anywhere! The storm was moving, so if he'd got caught in it, it would now be far off. Snotlout had said the storm was coming from the north. Hiccup must be north.

"We're heading north, girl!" I said to my dragon.

We sped off at full speed. I was going to find Hiccup.

Toothless and his new friend kept playing as I explored our surroundings. Everything was new: the plants, the trees, the rocks, the dragons. I hoped to find others, but for that I was counting on Toothless' new friend to help me, but she didn't seem to want to stop playing anytime soon. So, I law down on the grass not far from them, and asked Toothless to light a fire as night was beginning to fall. He did so quickly, and went back to play.

I watched the night sky full of stars, each one shining brighter than the next, and thought about Astrid. Astrid, my lovely Astrid who I loved so much and who I'd left all alone… I knew she was strong, that she could take care of herself, that she could overcome anything… But the night we lost the baby, I saw a side of Astrid that was weak and powerless. I hadn't been supportive enough, Astrid couldn't face this alone. She needed me and I'd left, all this was my fault.

I sat up. I missed her dearly… We really needed to talk.

* * *

"Land!"

Stromfly let out a satisfied roar and landed. I dismounted, and cared for my dragon.

"Well done girl."

I swept my eyes around our surroundings, no danger in sight, so we'd spend the night on this island. As I leant back against Stormfly's warm scales, I was soon lost in my thoughts.

 _Hiccup had said no. It was the first time he'd not let me go with him. Tuning nineteen at the time, he'd gained confidence, with all the good and bad attitudes that came with it. He was becoming a man, not only a man but also a Viking. He was more stubborn, and when he had an idea there was no way to change his mind. He was also getting more handsome, a slight stubble growing on his now square jaw. Hiccup was good looking but no less annoying, he was getting stronger than me and now managed to beat me easily in combat, he was even getting taller than me. And now he didn't want me to go with him and Toothless, because apparently it wasn't very interesting! I just wanted to be around him._

 _I woke up my dragon who was having her daily nap._

 _"_ _Get up Stromfly!" I gently shook her._

 _She opened her eyes with difficulty._

 _"_ _Hurry up girl, or we're going to lose them!"_

 _She looked at me with a disapproving look._

 _"_ _We're going to follow Hiccup and Toothless to find out where they're going without us. They've just left, we need to catch up!"_

 _Stormfly seemed to agree with the idea, so I got on her back and we took off. I could just make them out ahead of us even though we were far behind. Hiccup was following a route I'd never been on before, and ended up landing on a hidden part of Berk I didn't know existed. I touched down a bit further away and started to follow him. Once I got to the edge of the lake, I'd lost him. I looked around when suddenly I felt a hand grip my legs and drag me into the cold water. Hiccup knew I'd followed him, he'd known I was there from the beginning. He brought me close to him and kissed me with a passion I didn't know he was capable of. It was as if that kiss allowed us to breathe underwater. Hiccup was fiercer than ever, he held me by the hips and kept me close. We rose to the surface to catch a breath, then dived back down. After a while we got out the water and he pinned me to the ground with a long kiss. He lifted his head._

 _"_ _So you're following me now eh?" he playfully said._

 _I smiled and stole a kiss._

 _"_ _You knew from the beginning, didn't you?"_

 _He smiled knowingly and put his lips against mine once again._

That was how I'd found out about their secret hiding place. After that, Hiccup and I became a proper team, we shared more and held each other up when we were down. Whenever one of us had an issue, we'd sort it out together, and face things together. Since the miscarriage however, we'd hadn't spoken once…

Bluish lights appeared overhead a grove, I recognised them to be night fury blasts. Hiccup wasn't far. I shook Stormfly who woke with a start and we jumped into flight towards the grove. Unable to get any closer, I made my dragon land.

"Stay here, okay girl?"

She nodded clearly, so I stroked her head in thanks.

I grasped my axe as well as a large piece of wood I asked her to set alight. My makeshift torch in one hand and my axe in the other, I set off into the trees. Although my torch lit the way it was very dark without Stormfly, but the trees were too tight together for her to get any closer. I tried as best I could to avoid the thorns, but it was difficult because they were everywhere. Of course I wasn't afraid of thorns, but I was doing this for Hiccup, and he wouldn't like to see me all scratched. Again I saw the blue blasts, closer this time, I'd soon find Hiccup. Suddenly I heard sounds from all around me, getting closer, little dragon cries: night fury cries… I then saw a dozen of the black dragons around me who all started groaning menacingly, getting dangerously close and staring at me with eyes that didn't very reassuring. I understood that I was not in a strong position, so I took off with long strides deeper into the forest. The dragons were pursuing me, but the thorns and roots were getting in my way and slowing me down. Suddenly I got caught in roots, and fell in the sharp bushes, at the wild dragons' mercy. I couldn't free myself, I struggled with all my strength, but in vain. To my surprise, the night furies didn't seem to find me, which was a good thing. Then I heard footsteps come my way. A man with a wolf pelt bent in towards me.

* * *

I was in a deep sleep when I was suddenly awoken by dragon whimpers. The female night fury seemed distressed and afraid, as if something was happening. I then saw plasma blasts erupting all over the island. I climbed on to Toothless, as I told him to head towards the scene. The female followed. The scene seemed close, so we slalomed through the trees to get there fast. Toothless' new friend was on edge, as if she was looking for something, or someone. Finally, we arrived and what I saw confirmed what I'd been thinking: a whole group of night furies stood before us. I was right, the female dragon was looking for her herd, her family. I couldn't believe it; all these years we'd been looking on all the islands far from Berk when they were so close all along! And we'd discovered this by accident! I wished Astrid was here to see this with me…

I was suddenly dragged from my thoughts by a scream, a distress cry, and ran towards the source of the sound. Hidden behind a rock I saw _her_ , Astrid, her arms pinned down by a man.

"Let me go right now, you brute!" she shouted.

"Tell me what you're doing here and how you found this place." said the man firmly.

I left my hiding place and pointed my fire sword in his direction.

"Let her go immediately and we'll answer your questions."

The man stared at me intently, then let go of Astrid who ran into my arms. I held her tightly with one arm, while still holding my sword with the other.

"What are you doing here?" I whispered in her ear.

"I came looking for you for god's sake!" she replied.

She let go of me and picked up her fallen axe, and pointed to the man with the blade.

"You won't win kids… do you even know who you're dealing with?" threatened the man.

Astrid and I looked at each other without understanding.

"I'm Erik Vemund, keeper of night fury's island."


	4. Chapter 4

**_Hey! I'm alive! Sorry for the wait! I'm in terminale and I pass my baccalauréat so I'm a little busy... Nevermind, I hope you'll enjoy this chapter guys! Thank you for your review and see you soon! And thanks my dear translator!_**

* * *

Who was this Erik Vemund? Did he live alone on this island? How long had he been living there? Too many questions were wandering in my head, I grasped Astrid's hand.

"We don't want to cause any problems" I said quietly, "all we want to know is who you are and what you're doing here."

"It should be me asking you what you are doing here, on _my_ island!" he growled.

"I got lost and landed here by accident, okay? Astrid was only coming to look for me."

"But how did she find you if you were lost?"

"Hiccup has a unique dragon, Toothless. So when I saw the plasma blasts coming from the forest, I thought it was him and I discovered your island."

"Who is Toothless?"

"Well, it's him." I said as I gently pat my dragon's head that'd popped up next to me at the sound of his name.

At this point, the man had a strange reaction, his eyes opened wide and were fixed on my friend as if he recognised him. He turned towards me and lifted me by the collar, shaking me ferociously.

"So you're the one responsible?! I've been looking for him for years, never finding him, and you took him from me! What have you been doing with him?!" he shouted in my face.

"Let him go right now!" said Astrid, getting in the way.

Erik then started communicating strange sounds to the night furies, who started launching themselves on us and picking us up into the air. We all set off toward the skies, following Erik who was mounted on one of the night furies. Toothless and Stormfly didn't seem to be following us, they must still be dealing with the other dragons on the ground.

We arrived in a recluse area, dark and far from everything, at the centre of the island. The dragons who were still holding on to us threw Astrid and me into an ever darker cave. Erik came forward and shut the cavity with an unknown mechanism which set bars to block our way out. He came close and said to us:

"I'll decide what to do with you two later."

And then he left, leaving us prisoners.

* * *

The storm was over: we could now set off to search for Hiccup and Astrid.

I exited the Great Hall with a decided step, Gobber on my heels. He said to me:

"Valka, what do you want to do?"

"We need to find Hiccup and Astrid."

"Okay, I'll go get the others!"

"Oh, and Gobber? Tell them to get the sniffer dragons."

"Got it!"

"Thank you." I said with a smile.

Gobber really was a very good friend I could count on. He'd always been there for Stoik and I, he'd never let us down. When Hiccup was born, he was one of the happiest even though he refused to admit it. I could see that the two were very close. Gobber was like a second father for Hiccup, it was like he'd taken up my role as mother while I was gone. I was extremely happy that it was him and not anybody else.

He came back with Fishlegs, Snotlout, the twins, and Eret.

"We're here!" shouted the twins at the same time.

"So, how are we going to proceed?" asked Eret.

"We can split up into groups" offered Ruffnut, "I'll go with Eret!" she added as she grasped his arm.

"No need" answered Snotlout, "we already know where they are: north, where the storm came from."

"If we want a better chance of finding them we need the sniffer dragons!" added Fishlegs!

"That would be wiser." I said.

"Well then, let's go!" declared Gobber.

* * *

I turned towards Astrid.

"What were you thinking coming to find me on your own like that?"

"You're welcome…"

"Astrid, you could've got yourself killed!"

"If I came it's because I care about you no matter what! But obviously I shouldn't have bothered!"

"If I left, I had reason to. I needed to step back from all of that."

"Step back… from us?" she said hesitantly.

"I'm just wondering about our future but I…"

She interrupted me.

"So that's it then, you agree with all the villagers! You think I'll never be able to give you an heir so you're looking for another wife?!"

"Bloody hell Astrid, not at all! Where did you get that idea from? I love you and always will."

"So what's the problem?"

I moved closer to her and held her hands.

"Astrid, I think your miscarriage was a difficult thing to get over. It was a traumatising time and we can't just pretend it never happened. And I know I wasn't there for you enough, and that I didn't support you and I'm really, deeply sorry. I really want to fix my mistakes but I know it's too late, so now I promise to be there for you, whatever happens."

"That's kind of you Hiccup but I'm fine…"

"Astrid, you can tell me anything… And you know, that time really affected me too, you're not alone… You have no idea how useless I felt when I found you like that… I didn't know what to do… I'm so, so sorry Astrid!"

"Don't be. I wasn't your fault."

"But it wasn't yours either!"

As she started to sob, I held her in my arms.

"It is Hiccup, it's all my fault! I wanted to keep training, that's probably what caused the… the…"

Despite the flow of tears, she kept going.

"When you came back that evening, I'd had cramps all day but didn't tell anyone… That night it became unbearable, that's why I got up and… when I was on my own… my nightdress was drenched in blood and… and that's when I lost…" she cried.

She buried herself further into my embrace and I held her tight, trying to calm her as best I could. I stroked her back and kissed her head.

"You know Astrid, it wasn't the training that brought this on. I spoke with my mother not long ago, and you know what she said?"

She shook her head.

"She said it's the body's way of naturally rejecting a baby if it's not healthy. It wouldn't have been born anyway Astrid. Better now than at birth, right?"

"Of course, but it still hurts…"

"I'm not denying it, I just think we need to keep trying." I tell her with a smile.

She gave me a small smile and snuggled closer.

"I love you Hiccup."

I looked at her lovingly and kissed her head again, pushing back her hair.

"Me too Astrid."

* * *

I was afraid for my son and Astrid. I haven't known them for long but I know them enough to trust in their ability to get into trouble. The first time with Drago of course, but also other more humorous time.

 _It was shortly before their wedding. Our custom was to keep the future-weds apart during the short time before the ceremony, but Hiccup and Astrid ignored the tradition, as usual. That day they decided to go on a ride in the sun._

 _"_ _Are you sure you don't want me to pack you lunch for later?" I asked_

 _"_ _No mom, don't worry, I told you, we packed snacks!"_

 _"_ _Okay, and when will you be back?"_

 _"_ _We'll try to be back before sunset!" he said, eager to leave._

 _I stared at him insistently._

 _"_ _Promise!" he exclaimed._

 _He then sped off to join Astrid who was waiting for him outside. She smiled at me and they both left._

 _Towards the end of the day, I started to worry as the two love birds weren't back yet._

 _"_ _Oh don't worry Val'" Gobber reassured me. "They probably just want some alone time together! Understandably so! For once the kid listens to me"_

 _"_ _What?"_

 _"_ _No nothing… but don't worry, they'll be back by tomorrow!"_

 _Suddenly, we heard loud noises coming from the village square. I ran out and distinctly heared the villagers proclaim "Hiccup and Astrid are back!" "The chief is home!" or "the future bride and groom are here!". I was immediately relieved, until Hiccup ran up to me._

 _"_ _What is it son?" I questioned him._

 _"_ _Well… there may be baby deadly nadders coming over to Berk with all their family…"_

 _"_ _What… what do you mean?"_

 _Astrid came running up, followed by Stormfly who was being held on to by three baby dragons._

 _"_ _Hiccup, they won't let go of her!" she shouted._

 _"_ _Turns out, we discovered a new island with loads of gronkles, and then we saw three eggs. I immediately thought they were strange as they were definitely not gronkle eggs…"_

 _"_ _And out of them came these deadly nadders! Stormfly was beside me when they hatched and now they think she's their mother!"_

 _"_ _I see… Okay, let me see."_

 _Finally, we managed to unclasp the babies from Stormfly before their families arrived on Berk and destroyed everything, and Hiccup took it upon him to return them to their true mother._

Yes, Hiccup and Astrid had a talent for attracting trouble, which is why I stepped forward fearfully onto the island where the tracker dragons had led us. They were close but I was afraid of what state we would find them in…

"I heard a noise over there!" shouted Snoutlout.

"That's my stomach, stupid. I'm really hungry!" exclaimed Tuffnut.

"Good point, we're starving! When's dinner?" added Ruffnut.

"Are you guys kidding? Hiccup and Astrid are in danger and all you can think about is food?" Snoutlout snapped.

"Shh! Listen!" intercepted Eret.

Roars could be heard getting closer and closer.

"Isn't that a night fury cry?" said Gobber

"I'd say there's more than one…"

Soon, dozens of night furies were facing us, lead by a man in a wolf bane. He stood before us and took off his cape.

"Who dares enter night fury island? I don't allow any… V- Valka?!"

I looked at him, still, petrified at the sight of this man I thought dead long ago…

"Erik?"


	5. Chapter 5

**_Hey there! I'm back with a new chapter cause I finally found a new translator! So thanks to iamthespaceprincess to translate this chapter! The next ones will arrive soon thanks to her! Thank you so much!_**

 ** _And sorry for the wait!_**

 ** _I hope this chapter will please you! Tell me your opinions on it!_**

* * *

 _He was the strongest, the most courageous, the most savage warrior on the entire island of Berk. He was, without a doubt, the most fearless viking that had ever existed; nothing scared him, not even death. Definitely not the dragons that regularly assaulted Berk for generations. During battles, he was always on the frontline, charging headfirst into the fray, consequences be damned. He didn't have a wife at home worrying for him, he had always been somewhat of a loner. His reclusive tendencies did not, however, stop him from becoming one of the most trusted confidants of our chief, and my husband, Stoik the Vast. Erik was his friend first, and his brother-in-law second._

 _The night that he disappeared haunted my dreams for the rest of my life._

 _Erik had been toying with a crazy idea for a while by that point: capturing a Night Fury for his own. Everyone, including me, had tried to dissuade him, but he refused to listen to reason. It was a matter of personal honor, he said, he needed it. Any time someone told him that it was too dangerous, he reminded them that a Night Fury was still a dragon, and he knew how to deal with dragons._

 _No person or thing could have changed his mind. And yet, I felt responsible. I always felt responsible for him, protective older sister that I was. I was always looking out for him. Always… except for that night._

 _It was a raid like all the others: dragons swooping down on Berk in the dead of night to steal food. I had just found out I was pregnant and Stoik had decreed that I was not to participate in defending the island, I was to rest for my health and the health of our child. As much as I wanted to go out and help, I was overjoyed at my impending motherhood and was so content that I had forgotten everything else._

 _I had forgotten Erik._

 _"_ _It was bad out there, Valka," Stoik said softly, taking my hands in his own. "I was trying to fend off a couple of Gronckles and I heard—" He paused, steeling himself. "I heard Erik. I turned around and he was fighting a Night Fury. It—… it carried him off, Valka, I'm sorry." I faintly heard him trying to console me, but all I was aware of was the feeling of the world falling out from underneath me and the blood rushing in my ears. My brother, my one and only brother, was gone. I couldn't convince him to see reason. I couldn't protect him. It was all my fault._

 _"_ _I didn't tell him I was pregnant." was the only thing I could manage to say._

And now here he stood. In the flesh, very much alive, surrounded by Night Furies.

"Valka?" He blinked slowly a couple of times. "By the gods… what are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same question." I said after a long pause. I looked down at the ground, trying to find words. "You were… dead, Erik, everyone believed that you had died!"

He took a small step in my direction. "I'm here now, Valka," he said softly, advancing towards me, "I'm here."

Erik reached me and I took him into my arms, holding him with all my strength, clinging to him as if life itself depended on it. I breathed in raggedly, the first sob overwhelming me. I wanted to protect him, all I had ever wanted was to protect him! I abandoned myself to the emotions that crashed onto me. Sorrow, joy, anger… all caused by our reunion and all opposing forces. The sorrow of being separated from my brother for all these years, the joy of being together again, and the anger I still held deep within myself for not preventing his disappearance in the first place.

"I missed you so much." I sniffled once the sobs had quieted themselves.

"I missed you too, Valka." he said, pressing his face into my shoulder.

"Well! It's been ages, Erik!" I turned back to face Gobber, who was coming forward with arms outstretched to greet my brother. "But what have you been doing here all this time?"

"Woah woah woah," interrupted Tuffnut. "I missed something here."

"Yeah, who's this guy?" added Ruffnut.

I wiped my eyes. "Erik… is my brother."

Five mouths fell open simultaneously.

"Wait, you have a brother?" asked Snotlout indignantly.

"Yeah," Fishlegs continued, "why haven't we ever heard of him?"

Eret scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Uh, if he was 'dead', it seems pretty obvious that no one would ever talk about him."

Tuffnut scratched his nose. "Oh, yeah, I guess that makes sense."

"Oh, Eret," crooned Ruffnut, wrapping herself around his bicep, "you're so intelligent!" He gulped and flailed his arm a few times, failing to dislodge her.

I turned back to Erik, who was grinning. "Follow me." he said.

We travelled through the forest, shadowed by his pack of black dragons. It appeared that extreme loyalty to their master wasn't just a trait of Toothless, but of all Night Furies. I was having a hard time believing what I saw: my brother, fearless warrior and slayer of dragons, now living among them. I wondered how he had been able to tame them. I wondered what else had changed about him.

After nearly an hour of walking, we arrived at a clearing near a river. A small hut was tucked away near the tree line.

"Here we are," he said, gesturing around him, "my humble abode!" He led us to the river to refresh ourselves. I realized that this is the first time we'd stopped since making our getaway. We drank greedily and washed the dirt from our faces. A loud grumbling interrupted us.

"Uh, guys," Snotlout whined, "that's the sound of my stomach starting to eat itself. Because I'm starving. Because we haven't eaten in like, a day." He had a point, eating hadn't really been our first concern. We all felt our bellies start to complain in earnest.

Erik grinned. "You do all seem pretty hungry. How about we get some food? What about a fishing contest, the team with the most fish wins?"

"Sounds entertaining." said Eret derisively.

"Contest! Yes!" Snotlout perked up immediately. "I'm totally gonna win!"

We split into two teams. Eret, the twins, and Gobber against Snotlout, Fishlegs, Erik, and me. We caught fish as they swam through a small waterfall in the river. The competition quickly became more and more aggressive. Every time a team would take the lead, the other time would double down and overtake them, only for the situation to reverse once again. We ended up catching a dozen fish each.

And so the afternoon ended with all of us relaxing around a fire, happily eating our catch. When Erik sat down next to me, I couldn't stop myself from asking the question that had been on my tongue since first seeing him again:

"Erik, I must know… how did you survive all this time? And I thought you hated dragons, now you're living with them?"

He nodded slowly. "Fair questions, Val. Where to start… well, you remember the night I left?"

"Like it was yesterday." I responded sadly.

"You remember I was going after the Night Fury for weeks? That night, it presented itself to me as if it were a gift straight from the gods themselves. I had been waiting for so long, I couldn't wait another second. I went after it, my finest sword in one hand, my mace in the other, like any self-respecting viking. I hurled my mace towards the dragon, straight out in front of me with all my might, but to my great disappointment… " He looked around the circle of faces, drawing out the suspense, then jumped up and threw his arms towards the sky. "I missed!" He yelled. "I missed my shot! The reptile tackled me at full speed, grabbing me by the shoulders and lifting me off the ground. It flew off with me in its grip. I fought against it, but I couldn't break its grip! The dragon eventually dropped me on this island. My mace and sword were back on Berk, but I still had a couple of weapons with me: my strength, and my courage. I used those to keep the dragons away from me. I went days with no food. And then one day, a small Night Fury brought me some. And again the next day, and the next." He smiled tenderly and looked off towards the group of dragons, gesturing at one near the front of the pack. "I ended up making friends with that blue-eyed baby, Lifa."

Erik turned back towards the group. "She saved my life," he said seriously. "I understood then that these creatures were not at all what we thought they were. I approached little Lifa's family and found them to be as docile as she was. From then on, my daily life was punctuated with learning more about these dragons. Night Furies don't seem to mingle with any other species of dragon, strangely enough." He shrugged before continuing. "One of the females I was observing laid an egg. She stayed with it day and night and I knew it would be hatching soon."

His face suddenly took on a dark, somber tone.

"But then we were attacked. I'd never seen people like these before. They descended upon the island and destroyed everything in their path. They killed dozens upon dozens of Night Furies, and they smashed all the eggs except for the one I had seen, which hatched. They trapped the baby Night Fury that was inside and took it with them. I'll remember those eyes for the rest of my life, it was the only Night Fury I'd ever seen with such intensely green eyes." Erik sighed, defeated, and stared into the fire. "After I finally managed to push back the attackers, I swore to protect this place and never let something like that happen again."

Erik's story pierced my heart, and I could feel the pieces falling into place. My brother hadn't changed at all, he was the same loyal and honorable person I had always known.

"Oh, how perfectly you and my son would understand each other." I said affectionately.

"Your son?" He turned his head back towards me with a small smile.

I realized suddenly that I hadn't told him about our main reason for coming here, Hiccup! How could I have forgotten, even for a moment?

"His name is Hiccup! He has a Night Fury of his own." I exclaimed.

"Hiccup." he mumbled, his brow furrowed.

"What? Erik, what is it?"

* * *

We had been huddled together in the cave for quite some time. Hiccup's strong arms surrounded me with their warmth. I was with him, everything would be ok. His confession about the effect my miscarriage had on him had taken me by surprise. I didn't think he was handling it as badly as I was. I thought he had dealt with it and moved on. I was wrong: he was really worried about me and felt useless. In reality, I needed him so much but didn't show him.

He tightened his hold on me. "You ok?" He sounded worried.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I replied with a small smile. "Don't worry about me."

I hooked my arms around the back of his neck and kissed him underneath his chin. I pulled back and looked up at him coyly. "Maybe… we could try again?"

I brought my nose up to bump his, eyes half closed. He smirked, an amused look in his eyes. "Astrid," he breathed out, "no—we can't! We're prisoners here!"

My mouth found its way to his ear. "My prisoner…" I whispered.

As I began to pull my head back to kiss him, he pulled me to him and beat me there, his mouth overpowering mine. Our tongues came into contact and I felt a shock course through my body, straight into my lower abdomen. He pulled back to catch his breath and I smiled, my mouth half-open with desire. His gaze on my body felt like fire, spurring me to act. My hands went for his chest, pulling off his armor to feel the bare, well-defined skin underneath. He lifted off my shoulder armor and I untied my hood, which was suddenly feeling way too warm and heavy.

He wrapped his arms around me and flattened me onto the straw present on the ground of the cave. I maneuvered my body so he could pull off my tunic, running his hands up my sides in the process. After he got it off, he leaned down and kissed all the small patches of my lower stomach slowly, then worked his way back up to my belly button. He continued up my sides, kissing between my ribs and then peppering my chest with small kisses. He worked his way up my neck and then arrived at my mouth. I pressed my lips to his, trying to pour everything I felt for him into the action.

I could feel the effect I was having on him against my leg, which only served to strengthen my desire. My hands lowered down to the top of his pants, intent on ripping them off, when suddenly we heard voices approaching. Our heads snapped up and we looked at each other, panicking. I replaced my tunic and placed my shoulder armor in its spot. Hiccup got dressed just as quickly, preparing to fight the unknown group off if needed. He pulled his Dragon Blade partway out of its holster.

A group of dangerous-looking men, clad in heavy armor, appeared before us. One of them pulled the lever to lift the bars from the mouth of the cave. Hiccup and I took a tentative step outside, hand in hand. I squeezed his hand and that was all the encouragement he needed—we ran, intent on finding our dragons.

The armored men caught up to us quickly and tied our hands behind our backs. The group stood across from us. One of them finally spoke. "We didn't want to have to restrain you, you know," he said mildly.

"Oh, really?" I barked. "Why did you let us out of that cave and make us prisoners again?"

"Calm yourself," he replied. "Taking your prisoner is in no way our intention. We had orders to find you on this island and take you onto our ship."

Hiccup's brow furrowed. "Orders? Orders from who?"

"That doesn't concern you." the man said, starting to turn away.

They led us to their ship berthed on the east side of the island. Hiccup and I walked at length, silent, and I couldn't help but think about our activities before we were so rudely interrupted by these men in their fortified metal plating and peculiar helmets. Not only were they taking us Thor knows where, but they'd prevented us from finishing what we'd started and I hated them even more for that. I tried to focus on walking, facing diligently forward, but I could feel Hiccup's worried eyes on me.

I cut him off before he could say anything. "You don't have to ask me, I'll just tell you right now. No, I'm not ok." I said grumpily.

He grinned stupidly, knowing exactly what I had been thinking about. "Now don't you worry, we'll get back to that." I threw him an annoyed look. "I am worried about our dragons, though. I don't know if they're safe on this island with this… Erik Vemund character here, proclaiming himself 'Master of the Island of Night Furies'."

"He actually said 'Keeper'." I teased.

Before he could respond, the men at the head of the group stopped. We were here.

"Get on!" the man from before ordered us.

"Why? Where are you taking us?" Hiccup demanded.

The man smiled shrewdly. "You can ask that question to the Master."


	6. Chapter 6

_**Hey there! New chapter here! Sorry for the wait but I changed my translator once again. So I send a big thank you to my new translator**_ **whosthatgal** _ **! Thank you so much sweet heart!**_

 _ **So what do you think is this master? You'll know it sooner than you think! Besides, I want to warn you that this chapter countains nsfw so if you're a sensitive soul, leave it alone. And don't worry it will be the only one.**_

 _ **And by the way, thank you to your kind words on the comments! I'm waiting for more! Let me know what you think!**_

 _ **Happy reading!**_

* * *

"The Master?" I said, my voice barely audible, before getting embroiled with Astrid inside the drakkar.

"Wait, but who is that—the Master?" Astrid said, frowning.

"Answer us!" I pleaded.

"Bring him," one of the men said. "I take care of the girl."

He pinned her arms. My blood ran cold.

"No!" I shouted. "Leave her!"

"Hiccup!" she called.

I ran to her, but the men grabbed me by the arms, the chief still holding her tightly.

"Astrid!" I shouted once more.

I struggled with all my strength and managed to slip out of their grasp. The man threw Astrid to the ground, and I helped her stand up.

"You filthy…" Astrid began, but she was cut off by the chief, who leaned over her.

"If I were you, I'd learn to shut up and be a good girl—unless you want trouble."

He moved a step back to stand straight in front of us.

"This is your last warning, you two—you're going to regret it next time," he said coldly.

We didn't have time to react before he took us elsewhere: the ship's hold became our new prison. Astrid bounded towards the door, pounding it violently.

"Let us out!" she yelled.

I stood up and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder; she pulled away from me.

"No, Hiccup, no. We can't let them do this! We have to do something," she said firmly.

"Astrid," I said, taking a step toward her, "there's nothing we can do."

A fold drew between her eyebrows.

"I know you, Astrid, and I know that at this precise moment you're boiling inside… but please, let things be for now—the boat's bound to stop somewhere regardless."

I put my hands on her shoulders, and she glared at me, hands on her hips.

"Please," I insisted, looking at her intensely, my gaze sinking into hers.

Finally, she let go, relaxing and snuggling against me.

"But what do they want from us, Hiccup?"

I caressed her upper back.

"I don't know, Astrid, I don't know…"

I held her more tightly in my arms, feeling a shiver run through her. I lifted her head; she had an empty stare.

"What is it?" I said, worried.

"What if…what if this Master was Viggo? Or even Dagur!" she exclaimed.

"What? No, that would be ridiculous…Unless…"

"Unless what, Hiccup?" she asked.

"Unless they're still searching for something we have…Don't forget, they're still not at peace with the dragons, Astrid, unlike most of the people around Berk."

"Do you think so? But, now that I think about it, it has been a long time since they've attacked us…"

"All the more reason to doubt them."

"Yeah, you're right," she acquiesced.

"Of course I'm right! Especially when it comes to your safety, Milady," I assured her.

She leaned on me, laughing drily.

"Haha, very funny. You know full well I don't need to be protected!" she exclaimed.

"Oh, really? So, then, just now with those men? What would you have done without me?"

"Well, I would've done fine! I would've hit them where it counted, and then…"

I pulled her towards me.

"Astrid, did you see how muscled those guys were? You had no chance…"

I choked back a sob and held her closer against me.

"I…I can't stand to let anybody hurt you…"

I buried my face in her neck, and she stroked my hair.

"Oh, Hiccup, you know nothing's going to happen to me when I'm with you…"

I lifted my head and she smiled tenderly; I smiled back in return and she pulled me towards her to kiss me. She pinned me to the ground and I drew her closer, holding her back. All of a sudden, the ship started to pitch, and we were jolted around so that I found myself on top of her.

"It's better like this," she grinned.

I was leaning in to kiss her when the drakkar moved again, sending us rolling against the wall. We burst out laughing. We were stretched out on the floor, and I held Astrid against me. The ship pitched again, and a barrel rolled in our direction. I stood up, grabbing Astrid's hand, and pulled her into my arms just before the barrel slammed into the wall where she had been.

"Okay, so I guess a cargo hold isn't exactly made for this type of thing…" I said.

"What?" she said, indignant. "No! We just need to arrange the 'cargo' a little better."

She pulled me into the corner of the hold, leaning my head between two walls, then positioned herself on top of me—I knew perfectly well what she wanted to do next. I contemplated this magnificent woman—my wife—smiling, incredulous. She leaned over me, still with a mysterious smile on her lips, and undid the laces of my pants slowly, taking care to bush against my pubic hair, which always provoked—as she knew full well—shivers that only heightened my desire, and then she descended a little lower. My phallus sprang free before her full of desire eyes. She took hold of it and began to suck, her expert tongue wrapping around me with her voluptuousness, and I began my road to bliss. I gripped the back of her neck, my hands getting lost in her hair as her ministrations filled me with pleasure, a pleasure that filled my whole body in the form of electroshocks that only made me want more.

"Astrid!" I gasped.

She took up her exquisite torture once more, and I let her, but she had better stop soon, or else I wouldn't be able to last much longer. She continued, tasting me more and more ardently, and I stopped her.

"Astrid!" I said. "Stop…"

I could see a smile in the corner of her mouth, drawing itself across her face. _Astrid…_ I thought. My body couldn't respond any more to Astrid's caresses—my pleasure reached its maximum and I exploded into her mouth. When she finished, she leaned over me to kiss me fervently, still clinging to me. I could feel her heart pounding in her chest. I put my pants back on, sitting up as I did so I was on her level again. I stroked her cheek with my left hand, pulling her towards me to kiss her back, but I was thrown forward, pinning Astrid to the floor without meaning to—though the position certainly had its advantages—by the drakkar coming to a sudden halt. We both stood, hearing footsteps coming in our direction—it was the Master's men.

"Hey, get up in there—we've arrived at our destination," one of the two men shouted.

Astrid grabbed my hand and pulled me towards her.

"The trip was a little short for my taste," she whispered in my ear.

"Yeah, but now we can escape," I murmured back.

"Come on! We don't have all day here!," the chief yelled.

And so we followed the troop of men and disembarked.

"Welcome to Göteborg," one of the men declared.

* * *

"Erik, answer me," I insisted.

He had a blank stare; his head lowered, and didn't say a word. It scared me. Why wasn't he answering? Did it shock him that much that I had a son? Or…was it because they already knew each other?

"What…you know him?" I almost yelled.

He finally lifted his head towards me with a guilty look I'd never seen before. My brother had never been guilty of anything—he had always been an honest man, full of character. What had happened to him?

"Valka, I…I know your son." He admitted.

Everyone's mouths fell open: how could they know each other?

"But…he wasn't alone," he continued. "A girl was with him…"

"Astrid?" I said, surprised.

So she had found him?

"Yes, that's it," he said.

"And where are they now?" I asked, worried.

"Well…"

"Where are they, Erik?" I asked again, leaning over him, my tone menacing.

He cleared his throat, then stood, inviting us to follow him. And so we followed him through the forest, arriving at a dark, secluded spot deep in the woods. We headed towards a small cave, where we could see prison bars. I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

"How could you, Erik? How?" I cried.

"No, wait, Valka, it's not what you think!"

"Oh, no? Then what is it? You didn't put my son and my daughter-in-law in this prison of yours?"

"No, I did! But I don't understand—I left them there and now…"

"And now where are they?"

He lowered his gaze, and I approached him.

"Erik! Tell me!"

"It was the Slavs. The Slavs took them."

"What? But who's that again?" Gobber asked.

"Hey! I'm Slav!" Erik said, indignant.

"Oh, sorry," Gobber said.

"But what do you mean by that, Erik?" I asked him.

"They're…they obey a very powerful man… The Master."

* * *

 _Göteborg?_

"Göteborg? _"_ Astrid said.

"It's a medieval town!" I explained, remembering.

"Follow us!" the chief ordered. "The Master has a little surprise in store for you."

"A surprise? Really? You don't care about us, is that it?" Astrid said, not hiding her amusement.

"Like I said, it's a surprise. Don't ask me why, I don't understand it either," the chief answered.

Astrid turned to me and shrugged, smiling. I returned her smile. We walked for a while, and in the meantime we discovered the magnificent port that was Göteborg, where trade was apparently flourishing. It was Johann that told me about it—this was the town where he made most of his money. We stopped at a market.

"Alright, we need to meet with certain people—you're going to stay there and wait. Ragnar will watch you."

"'Watch' us? We're not kids!" Astrid protested.

"Astrid…"

"Okay, fine…Let's go over there!" she said.

She pulled me through the various stalls, and we stopped at a fabric shop. I was suddenly faced with a very feminine, very interested Astrid.

"Hiccup, look! Have you ever seen cloth like this before? It's silk—feel how soft it is."

She placed my hand on the fabric—it did feel nice, but I didn't really get where she was coming from.

"Hiccup! Can…" she didn't finish her sentence.

"What?"

"I know I've never asked for anything, but this fabric would make such beautiful clothes!" she said, excited.

"Well, it's just…I don't have a cent on me…I'm sorry, Astrid—we can ask Johann to bring some to Berk the next time he comes if you want?"

"You know Johann?" the merchant asked.

"Yes, he comes to sell stuff on Berk."

"I'm his wife! You must be that Hiccup he's always telling me about!"

"Heh…yep, that's me," I answered, disconcerted.

"You're a friend of Johann, let me give you this fabric!"

"Oh, you're too kind, we couldn't…" I said.

She deposited the cloth in our arms.

"Yes, yes, yes, I insist!" she said.

And so we left, our arms full of silk, to Astrid's delight. It's true that she didn't often treat herself to things like this. We joined back up with the troop again, accompanied by Ragnar, who had followed us all the way, and we found ourselves in front of the entrance to a castle. The chief stood and approached us.

"The Master's gift is waiting for you."

"What? What's this?" I asked.

"Follow me."

The drawbridge descended and lay down before us. The chief invited us to cross, and we crossed into the castle interior. We put down the fabric where the chief ordered us to, and continued our discovery of the elaborate palace. We stopped once it seemed we'd reached the centre of the building.

"Alright, you're free for now. The castle is yours until further notice—but you do not have the right to leave," the chief declared. "Have a nice stay."

And they left, leaving us alone, Astrid and me, in this immense castle.

"Now's the time, Astrid! We can escape while we still can!" I exclaimed.

"And if we'd visited this castle before? It's not that often we get time for us, Hiccup—maybe we can take advantage of it just once, don't you think?"

"I don't know, Astrid…"

"Either way, it's almost nightfall—how would we get anywhere without our dragons? Don't you think it's better to wait until tomorrow?"

"You're right—let's take advantage."

She smiled like a little girl who'd just gotten the best present in the world—she was happy. And so we set out to discover the castle. It was massive—there were more rooms than we could count. The walls were decorated with incredible tapestries and murals, magnificent red and gold curtains hung from the windows, and the windows themselves were stained glass. Once we had finally finished the tour of the place—and after having eaten in the grand dining room—I had gotten up to leave the table when Astrid grabbed me by the arm and pulled me out of the room. She steered me into one of the bedrooms we'd visited, and closed the door behind us. It was the room with the largest bed and the silkiest sheets, piled high with cushions, and with huge red curtains that surrounded the bed. She advanced slowly towards me, then stopped, just a few centimetres away.

"I want you," she said.

I took a step towards her, kissing her passionately. She was right—it had been way too long since we'd had a moment to ourselves. We kicked off our shoes, then I took her by the waist, lifting her and placing her up on the bed, setting her down delicately with myself on top of her. I pulled off her tunic and removed her skirt, followed by her leggings and underwear in one single motion. She took off my tunic and unfastened my pants. She then took care of her braid, letting her hair fall over her shoulders. We were both naked then, ready to offer ourselves to each other. She took me in her arms and kissed me ardently, pulling me further towards her until we fell down onto the bed. Our tongues mingled together in a swirl of bliss as we tasted each other. My hands traced the length of her neck down to her chest. Astrid gasped under me with each caress, her nipples hardening. I kissed each of her breasts in turn, then kissed her on the lips once more. I straightened back up, and she parted her thighs. I sank into her, and she moaned. We were pressed close together, and she hooked her fingers into my hair while my arms wrapped around her back, holding her against me.

"Hiccup…Again," she whispered.

So I pulled out only to fill her up again, and she cried out. The movements of our bodies fell into a rhythm as I pumped in and out, and it wasn't long until we were both at the brink of orgasm. We came together. I collapsed against her, and she took my head in her hands.

"I love you, Hiccup,"

"I love you too, Astrid."

We kissed once again.

* * *

"The Master? But who's that?" I asked.

"I'm under his orders. In exchange, he guarantees the protection of the night furies, and…"

"Get to the point already, Erik!" I cried.

"It's Drago Bludvist."

A heavy silence fell. _No._

"What? No, it's impossible! And you let his men take Hiccup and Astrid?!"

"It's just…I was trying to protect…"

"You're no longer the man I used to know, Erik…you've let me down enormously. What happened to the man of honour?" I silenced him with a wave of my hand—I'd already heard enough. I turned toward the rest of the gang.

"We have to save Hiccup and Astrid before it's too late."


	7. Chapter 7

**_Hey here! I'm so glad my dear translator found the time to translate this new chapter! It's a beautiful birthday gift! Thank you so much whosthagal :3_**

 ** _Happy reading!_**

* * *

The memory of the previous night having hardly faded, I got up, still surrounded by the sumptuous bed curtains we'd slept within, and was about to get out of bed when a hand caught me by the arm.

"What, no good morning?" Hiccup said.

I slid back under the thick covers, bringing my face close to Hiccup's. I leaned over him and pulled him close for a delicate kiss on the lips.

"Good morning," I said, smiling.

He invited me to snuggle against him, and I positioned myself against his torso, my head just below his neck, and he wrapped me up in the warmth of his arms.

"So, you had a good night?" he asked me.

I stuck myself a little tighter against him, nestling my head under his chin and caressing his torso.

"Hiccup…it was one of the most beautiful nights I've spent with you. I savoured every moment, it was _divinely_ good and you were extraordinary…Thank you," I whispered.

He tightened his grip around me.

"No, it's all you, Astrid…You're so beautiful, so seductive…I…I still can't believe how lucky I am that I have you…How could you have chosen me, instead of somebody else?"

I turned my head to the side, perplexed. How could he not know? I turned to look at him, amused, and smiled.

"Stop smiling!" he said, pulling me towards him. "What's so funny?"

"You," I answered, a smile still on my lips.

He finally returned my smile. I took his face in my hands.

"Hiccup, stop underestimating yourself…You want to know why I chose you instead of somebody else? Well, because I love you—plain and simple. I love everything about you, from your kindness to your unbelievable awkwardness."

I drew back, running a hand through my hair, then continued.

"When you got me to fly on Toothless for the first time, it opened my eyes to the world around us. You opened my eyes to another future. I always thought that I'd become a great warrior, battling dragons—and look where I am now! I love you because you're different, Hiccup—don't ever forget that."

I kissed him on the cheek. He was confused, just like the first time I'd ever kissed him, just after our incredible flight, in fact. I finally smiled, surprising me by grabbing me by the waist, then held me with all his strength against him. I felt safe in his arms.

"Thank you," he breathed. "Thank you for believing in me, thank you for always being there for me, thank you for everything…I don't know how I could live without you. You're my reason to live, Astrid."

"And Toothless, then? Are you forgetting him?" I asked.

"Astrid, we've talked about this…"

"Yes, and the last time, you said he was your favourite!"

"For the last time, Astrid, it's not the same! Toothless is my best friend, and you're my wife!" he cried.

I lowered my head, ashamed. He had just given me the most beautiful confession ever, and I'd brushed him off…what an idiot…I had just ruined a totally magical moment. He lifted my chin with his left hand.

"Hey…I don't want us to argue," he said softly. "You know full well that's not what I meant. I love you, Astrid, I love you so much…" he breathed, smiling while stroking my hair.

I pulled his face towards me and kissed him full on the mouth. I wasn't about words—I was about actions. We continued to kiss, falling back down onto the bed before continuing what we'd started under the sheets.

 _Nineteen. That's how old we were when Hiccup and I had first made love. Our missions on dragons' back had come a long way since our discovery of the Dragon Eye—we were going on adventures almost every day, and I was always by Hiccup's side. Our relationship had only gotten stronger over the years, and we'd never been so close. Nothing got between us. Apart from our affectionate words, our regular kisses and a few ardent, our sex life was deathly boring. I knew full well that tradition dictated that a couple shouldn't have one at all before marriage, but Hiccup had a habit of breaking with tradition, didn't he? And it was for our own good in the first place, so what was the difference? Sympathising with dragons had been, far from a mistake, the best thing that had ever happened to Vikings. We would have continued to fight them for a very long time if he hadn't come along. When he disobeyed orders and we invented dragon races, it was all for a good cause. Hiccup shook things up for the better. That was the reason I wondered why we hadn't skipped a step yet. However, when I discovered he and Toothless' secret hideout, he kissed me with unbelievable ardour. For the first time, he was the one to take the initiative to kiss me like that. For the first time, he had wanted to put my pleasure above his. In that moment, I had thought we could've gone further—but Hiccup hadn't wanted to. So I stayed there, thinking about it all, putting Hiccup's latest sketches onto the map. Fishlegs pulled me out of my reverie._

 _"You okay, Astrid?"_

 _"Huh? Uh...Yeah, of course! I was just lost in my thoughts…" I said, a bit disconcerted._

 _"You sure? You know, if there's ever a problem, I'm here for you."_

 _I gave in, and plunged immediately into my thoughts. Fishlegs was nice, but he definitely couldn't help me…He would've had to actually have gone out with a girl to understand…_

 _"Ah!" I let out a yell, smashing my head against somebody else's-whoever had just caught my by the waist, surprising me and making me jump. I turned around and discovered the head I'd just smashed against: Hiccup's. Apparently he was the only one who could have this effect on me._

 _"What are you thinking about?" he asked._

 _"How exactly I'm going to pay you back for this…"_

 _He smiled, knowing I was kidding. I stood up and kissed him furtively on the lips. Then, while playing with my fingers in his, he asked me:_

 _"So, what are we doing today?"_

 _Then it was my turn to play with his fingers. I stayed focused on our intertwined hands._

 _"Well, I thought we could spend the day together—just us?" I asked, lifting my head._

 _"That sounds doable," he said, without hiding his amusement. "And where do you want to go?"_

 _I raised our interlaced fingers above us so I could snuggle up against Hiccup, then brought my hands behind his neck._

 _"Maybe we could go to our secret hideout?"_

 _He smiled._

 _"Of course."_

 _And so we left, after eating, on our dragons' back. Once we arrived, Stormfly and Toothless left to have fun a little further away, almost like they knew we needed privacy. Hiccup and I were sitting in the grass, and we talked all afternoon. Whether in his arms, snuggled against him, or with my head lying on his knees, I felt great. At that particular moment, I was stretched out against him, my head resting on his chest, with one of his arms wrapped around my waist while we looked up at the sky._

 _"To think that we might never have known all this," he murmured._

 _"All what?" I asked._

 _"All of this! Flight, the expeditions, the dragons—but mostly, the sense of freedom you get to feel when you're up there…"_

 _"Hiccup, you know all of that is thanks to you."_

 _I stroked his cheek and he turned towards me, smiling._

 _"Well, it didn't hurt that you had faith in me. I owe a lot to you, Astrid."_

 _He kissed me. I pulled him towards me and intensified the kiss. We kissed again and again, breathlessly, him on top of me, his hands climbing the length of my body and mine gripping his back. Hiccup lifted his head to catch his breath._

 _"Astrid…I… You know we can't do this…"_

 _"Good Thor! Hiccup! We're nineteen years old! We're not going to just wait forever!"_

 _"But it's tradition…"_

 _"Tradition? This would hardly be the first time we've bucked tradition."_

 _"No, Astrid, I don't think you understand…I want to do things right for us, for you…"_

 _I smiled—he was sweet. I snuggled against him._

 _"But you don't want to do this?"_

 _"Astrid…"_

 _"Answer me."_

 _"…Of course I want to…"_

 _"I know tradition means a lot to you, but Hiccup, you were the first one of us to show that sometimes, tradition can be wrong. Starting with our war against the dragons: you proved that we didn't have to fight them."_

 _"Don't bring the dragons into this."_

 _"I just want you to see the hypocrisy of this situation," I finished._

 _Silence._

 _"Come on, let's get back to the village. It's getting late."_

 _I'd said what I'd said—the ball was in his court now. So we went back to the village—but when we arrived, we didn't see anyone._

 _"Weird…"_

 _"You said it," I admitted._

 _"I don't remember there being anything going on today…I must be forgetting something."_

 _"Wait! Trader Johann got here today! He must be telling stories in the Great Hall."_

 _"Oh! That must be it!" Hiccup exclaimed._

 _"Not that they're always particularly interesting…"_

 _"That's for sure…"_

 _We burst out laughing, then looked each other straight in the eye, smiling._

 _"What do you say we go back to your place, the two of us, for some peace and quiet?" I proposed._

 _"I don't know, Astrid…"_

 _"Come on, we could work on the map…"_

 _"Okay, fine."_

 _He smiled, and we made our way to his house. Once we arrived, we got to work. He finalized the sketches of the islands we'd discovered, while I indicated the species of dragons present on these new territories, as well as the nature of their habitats. He also took care to mark their positions and their climates. When that was done, we warmed up by the fire while we ate, and then it was time for me to leave. I paused at the door, ready to go._

 _"Thanks for everything, Hiccup," I smiled._

 _I kissed him delicately on the lips, then stepped back, turning to go, but he held me by the arm._

 _"Astrid…I… Do you…" he stammered._

 _"What?" I asked._

 _He had a sudden inspiration. "Astrid, sleep here tonight…with me."_

 _"You know full well what'll happen if I stay…"_

 _He took me by the hand, closed the door and pulled me up the stairs to his bedroom. We sat down on the bed, and Hiccup took both of my hands in his._

 _"Astrid, more and more, I'm realizing that I need you, to feel you close to me…It's stronger than me… You know it's hard to stand by your principles when you've got a Hofferson by your side, and I…"_

 _"And you what, Hiccup?" I asked._

 _"I don't want you to get stuck getting married in a hurry if you ever get pregnant because of me…"_

 _"Well, there are ways to make sure that doesn't happen…"_

 _"Yeah, but there's no way to be a hundred percent sure…"_

 _I leaned over him as he stretched out on the bed, taking his head in my hands._

 _"Hiccup, you're the one I want to spend my life with, okay? So we're going to take life as it comes—and if there's a baby in our future, then it'll be because the gods decided to put it there."_

 _I smiled, stroking his hair with one hand._

 _"But for now, we should live in the moment…"_

 _Then he leaned over me, letting me stretch out on his bed._

 _"You're sure this is what you want?"_

 _"Absolutely."_

 _And that was how we discovered the delicacies of love._

I woke up delicately, stretching and letting out a long yawn. _I guess I fell back asleep?_ I thought. I lifted the sheets gently, searching for signs of someone else's presence. I opened my eyes. Hiccup wasn't there.

* * *

Drago had come back-I couldn't believe it. And Erik had helped him with his business? Unbelievable—how could my brother had allied himself with that man? He knew he was the enemy of Berk, no less! But I was forgetting—this great man had abandoned Berk, his village and his family, his only sister…My brother had changed—I didn't recognise him anymore.

It was as though he'd forgotten all the principles he used to believe in. He had lied to me about what he knew about my son, and he hadn't bothered to wonder about the intentions of the less-than-honourable people to whom he'd delivered Hiccup and Astrid. He hadn't even had the courage to face his own problems! The honourable, honest, fair, strong and brave man that I had known had been replaced by a lazy, unfair, weak one. I was so disappointed. My brother had been my role model, a man I believed in—but he wasn't anymore. In fact, I saw in him the wife that I had been—and that made me terribly scared.

"Valka?"

Gobber interrupted my train of thought.

"Yes, you were saying…?" I answered.

"I was saying: we'd better find a ship if we want to have a chance at saving those two lovebirds!" Gobber exclaimed.

"But why wouldn't we go on dragons' back? It'd be…"

He counted on his fingers.

"Simpler, more effective…funnier, definitely," Tuffnut said.

Gobber smacked him, and Ruffnut wheezed with laughter.

"They've already told you at least three times—it'd be too loud!"

"We'd be at risk of being spotted," Fishlegs added.

"Well, when you guys are done, could we actually find out if Erik even has a ship?" Eret asked.

"Yes, I have one," he said quietly.

"Okay, perfect!" Eret cried. "Everybody to the boat!"

We all made our way to the ship, and Erik showed Eret the route to follow. I found myself in a corner of the ship when Erik came over to talk to me.

"Valka, I'm sorry."

"That's a good start."

"Why are you talking to me like that? Valka, I swear to you that if I'd known…"

"Stop. I'm sorry too—you remind me too much of…myself," I admitted.

"What? What do you mean?" he said.

"I didn't stay on Berk either. In fact, not long after Hiccup was born, a dragon broke into our house. I ran to protect hiccup, but as soon as I came face to face with the dragon, I could feel that it didn't want to hurt me. This was a gentle, intelligent creature—proof of everything I believed! But when Stoick arrived, the dragon carried me off with it. Now, there were a lot of things pushing me away already, but being carried off by a dragon—I took it as a sign. So I deserved it when you left too, because I didn't know to protect you that night…"

"But, Valka, for the last time—it wasn't your fault..."

"But still…the whole battle I carried on to make them see reason, telling them that peace was possible…They never listened to me, never! That's why I understand you, Erik—because you were one of the first to discover it for yourself—but for Thor's sake, Hiccup is my son! And I…I…I abandoned him…"

I burst into tears. Erik took me in his arms and consoled me the best he could.

"That's the difference between you and me. I abandoned my son, and Stoick had to raise Hiccup all on his own because of me…The truth is that I was reunited with him just over a year ago—almost two. And I was reunited with Stoick at the same time."

"But then where is Stoick? He didn't come with you? Ah, I guess he had his duties as chief to think about," Erik said.

"Erik, Stoick is dead…"

His face fell.

"What? How did it happen?!"

"He died protecting his son. He saved his life…and I feel…so guilty! I didn't do anything! I didn't protect you, or Stoick! And that's why I'm so scared for Hiccup. I…I couldn't forgive myself if something happened to him…"

He held me tighter in his arms, rubbing my back affectionately.

"Don't worry," he said. "We're going to find your son."

* * *

"Hiccup? Are you there?"

I came down the stairs to find myself in the main hall of the castle. I kept calling, but my voice rang out with no response. I headed into the dining room. _Maybe he's waiting there for me for breakfast?_ I thought. But then, I had just opened the door when a scream escaped from my mouth. Drago. He was calmly holding Hiccup by the sides. Hiccup was looking at me sadly, a doomed expression on his face. I started towards him when men seized me by the arms.

"No! Astrid!" he yelled, starting towards me, but more men caught him as well.

"Hiccup!" I cried.

I was terrified—I didn't understand what was happening.

"What the Thor is happening?" I asked.

Drago turned in my direction. Hiccup struggled as much as he could, but it was in vain.

"Don't hurt her!" he said.

Drago lowered himself down to my level. I wasn't scared of him—I was only scared for Hiccup. He examined me from all angles, very deliberately, then looked me straight in the eye.

"Hello, Astrid," he said calmly.

"I'm not scared of you."

"You should be, you know…I'm the Master."

I was stupefied. Drago was the Master? How had we not realized? But the castle—why would he have lent it to us? Hiccup was right—we should've left when we still had time.

"What do you want with us?"

"An excellent question, Astrid. But the question isn't what I want with _you_ so much as what I want from _him._ "

"What do you mean?" I said, worried.

He turned toward Hiccup, who bristled instantly—it was clear that he didn't know what Drago wanted with him either. Drago turned back towards me.

"Well, your boyfriend here possesses a gift that the two of us could never understand—but it's very valuable, and I need it for a…personal project."

"I'll never help you!" Hiccup said.

Drago turned toward Hiccup.

"Oh, you will. If not, your girlfriend will face the consequences."

He gripped my chin and lifted it.

"Your wife really is beautiful, Hiccup…"

"Don't you dare touch her!" Hiccup shouted, struggling.

"You know what happens if you refuse!" he said derisively.

Hiccup looked at me with horror and sadness. I knew what he was preparing to do.

"No, Hiccup! Don't do that—not for me! You can't take orders from him!" I pleaded.

He looked at me with devastated eyes—he'd made his decision.

"No, Astrid. I can't do that. I can't let anybody hurt you. I'll accept your offer, Drago—on the condition that Astrid goes free."

"That's all I needed to hear," he said, with a Machiavellian smile. "Take her away."

The men dragged me by the arms, steering me out of the room.

"Hiccup!" I cried, tears in my eyes.

"Wait—where are you taking her?! Astrid!" he yelled.

Once the door had closed behind us, I could just make out the sound of Drago addressing Hiccup:

"It's just the two of us now…"


	8. Chapter 8

**_Hey there! My dear translator Whosthatgal just finished the translation of a new chapter of mine! I hope you'll enjoy it! It's getiing a little darker..._**

 ** _Please tell me in the comments if you kie this turn of events!_**

* * *

 _What did they want from him?_ My question stayed unanswered. I fought with all my strength to free myself from the grasp of these men that separated me from the man I loved. I had to get back to Hiccup—I couldn't leave him in Drago's hands.

"Let me go!" I pleaded.

"Out of the question!" one of them replied, holding me even tighter.

"Please, I'm begging you—Hiccup is in danger! You _have_ to let me go!"

I was close to panic. I had to get a hold of myself, but how? How could I possibly put things into perspective when the person I loved the most in the world was in the talons of the most dangerous madman the world had ever known?

 _Come on, Astrid, calm down…You're stronger than this._

Yes, I _was_ stronger than this, and I was going to prove it.

The men steered me out of the castle, and we followed the paved alleys of the town until we finally arrived at the port of Göteborg. Where were they taking me? What did they want to do with me? We stopped momentarily in front of one of the moored ships, and the leader of the group left with three of his men to take care of some business, leaving me alone with just one guard.

I didn't have much time to act. The man had me with my hands behind my back, and didn't have any means of defending himself. Seizing my chance, I kicked him violently in the crotch.

He lost his grip and I took advantage immediately, knocking him out with two quick punches. I wasted no time in taking back my axe—which the men had brought along with their own weapons—and took off, in the hopes of finding a rowboat. I ran the entire length of the harbour before I finally found one, and jumped inside, setting off in the direction of Berk. It wouldn't do any good to get back to Hiccup all alone—I'd need to bring everyone, especially our dragons.

The further I got from the harbour, though, the more I felt like I was abandoning Hiccup. I was willingly leaving him alone there, with Drago Bludvist as a jailor. Oh, gods, I was a monster! How could I do this to him?

But I'd have to do it if I wanted to save him… I kept rowing out to open sea, and once I figured I was far enough from the Göteborg harbour, I started calling for my dragon. I was much more at ease on her back than in this boat…but I had no idea where she'd be at this time! I absolutely had to find her.

At that moment, I heard voices shouting, getting dangerously close to where I was—I'd taken too much time to stop and think. I turned and discovered that what looked like Drago's entire armada was on my heels, and if they caught me that'd be the end of it. I tried my best to pick up speed, but time wasn't on my side—they caught up to me with no trouble and took possession of the boat.

"What, so you decided to leave without saying goodbye?" the leader of the guards asked me.

He grabbed my arm, holding on with brutal force, then leaned closer.

"The Master isn't going to be happy when he hears about this…"

"Funny," I said. "The way I see it, he's going to be pretty mad at _you_ guys."

He frowned, throwing me a dirty look. He must not have been used to dealing with a woman who wields an axe as well as me.

"Tie her up!" he shouted. He was annoyed.

I smiled at him, letting the men tie up my hands. They then tied me to the mast of the ship, hands tied behind my back. Then the ship set sail again, but they didn't head back towards the harbour—in fact, the entire armada was steering towards one single spot: another ship up ahead.

We finally drew level with the other ship, and I was frozen above the scene before me: the vessel ahead of us was, in fact, that of a familiar tribe. Everyone was there: Gobber, Valka, Snotlout, Fishlegs, the twins, Eret…I couldn't believe it, they had all come to save us.

Then they recognized me.

"Astrid!" Valka cried.

I didn't want her to worry about me—she had enough going on down on deck. The leader was walking towards them.

"Who are you?" he asked them.

"We're friends of Hiccup and Astrid and we're here to bring them home, if it's not too much trouble," Gobber said coldly.

"That's really too bad, because actually we _will_ find that a little too much trouble," the leader answered.

"We're not leaving without them!" Valka said.

"You know what? We'll make a trade. We'll give you the girl, on the condition that you never come back here. So?"

Gobber paused to think, and Valka approached him.

"It might be our only chance," she murmured.

Gobber lifted his head and held out his hand to the man.

"It's a deal."

Some of the other men freed me from the ropes and led me down to Valka and Gobber. The leader addressed us with a satisfied smile.

"Goodbye…"

We reboarded the dragon riders' ship, and everyone welcomed me with relief on their faces. I turned back to the leader and his men on the ship—they were still glaring at me.

* * *

I was alone.

I was alone with Drago, crazier than ever, while I was tied to a chair with no way out—absolutely none. Despite my own situation, I couldn't stop thinking about Astrid. Where did they take her? Was she still in Göteborg? It was all too much.

"Where did they take her?" I called out.

"Hmmm…I'm really not sure—I just told them to take care of her," Drago said.

"If they touch a single hair on her head…"

"Calm down, I'm not sure that's what they had in mind…Although, who knows?" he said with a deceptive laugh.

"How can you joke about people's suffering like that?" I asked.

He kept laughing, then finally turned towards me.

"Ah! You're a real family man, aren't you? I was one once too…Before. Before the dragons took me!" he growled, grabbing me by the shoulders.

I was petrified, but he calmed down quickly enough, then continued.

"But you have plenty of other qualities, don't you? Especially with these exotic creatures? Answer me, O Dragon Master!"

I nodded, my heart pounding.

"You really impressed me with your dragon last time, you know that? What was his name again? 'Toothless', that's it. Yes, a night fury, if I'm not mistaken? The breed of your dragon says a lot about you—just like the dragonskin I'm wearing now."

I hadn't paid any attention last time, but I looked at him more closely now, horrified at not having realized it before:

"That's…that's a night fury skin…"

"It is. I killed it myself when I arrived on the Isle of Night Furies to scare your uncle! And it worked quite well, too, since he's been wrapped around my finger ever since," Drago gloated.

"Wait…what? My uncle? The guardian of the island?" I asked, disconcerted.

"What? You didn't know your mother had a brother?" he said, laughing madly.

This Erik Vemund was my mom's brother? How could that be possible? This news had me floored, but he kept going.

"In fact, we weren't there to talk about your family, but to talk about your talent, Hiccup. Because it's true that you have it—you have a real gift with the dragons. Succeeding at recuperating your dragon like you did, I admit that I didn't think you had it in you, but you proved me wrong, Dragon Master."

"I'm not a Dragon Master…"

"So what are you?"

"I'm the chief of Berk."

"Ah, of course—you became chief after the death of your poor father…"

He went too far.

I struggled furiously against the chair, powerless. He broke out in a sadistic smile.

"After all, it would be a shame to waste such a gift…."

"What are you getting at, Drago?"

"I'm saying that you're going to train dragons for me."

"For what?"

"They'll be the dragons I'll be using to destroy Berk," he said, dead serious.

"You know full well I'm not going to do it."

"Of course not, but you're not exactly going to be there to help with the destruction," he said.

"Well, you might as well just kill me now," I said carefully, "but I guess you wouldn't have brought me here if you didn't need me for something, right?"

He seemed a little disconcerted, but carried on.

"I've always said you were clever. Yes, there's another option available to you in this case. Renounce your life with the dragons, and join me! And your people will be saved!"

"Never! We'll never surrender to you!" I spat.

"But you'll see that whether you want it or not, one day I'll bring an end to the tyranny of these demons, and I'll exterminate every dragon that infects this earth!" he exclaimed.

This man was really off the rails, much crazier than I had imagined. Exterminate all the dragons? I guess that was his ultimate goal? He hadn't even tried to understand them—I hated people who chose the path of least resistance, who jumped straight to aggression without stopping to think. That's the kind of person Drago was, and I couldn't let him get away with this. I could never train his dragons.

"You don't understand anything…" I said, breaking a long silence.

"The way I see it, it's you who doesn't understand. I am your master, you are my prisoner—and you'll train my dragons, whether you want to or not."

"No—you don't understand: I won't train these dragons because you're going to use them to destroy my island and kill the dragons that live there—the ones you haven't even tried to understand," I said.

"Why should I try to understand the creatures that ripped me from my family? This is nothing but vengeance," Drago said, addressing me, then he turned to the men in the next room: "Guards! Take him to his cell—maybe he'll be more co-operative after spending some time in there."

They pulled me roughly from my chair and dragged me out of the dining room while Drago laughed, his madness clearer than ever.

* * *

"Astrid, tell us what happened," Valka asked me, a benevolent hand on my shoulder.

I had barely recovered from what had just gone on, but I knew I definitely had some explaining to do. I took a deep breath before beginning.

"Well, I had gone looking for Hiccup, and I found myself on this Isle of Night Furies, trying to escape from its guardian, somebody named Erik. When he finally caught me, Hiccup arrived—and then this Erik guy locked us both in a dungeon!"

"Well, well, I'm sure some _things went on_ in this dungeon," Snotlout interjected.

"Oh yeah. Those two can't stay still for two seconds," Ruffnut agreed.

The whole gang, with the exception of Valka and Gobber, burst out laughing.

"Mind your own business, okay?" I replied coldly.

They all fell silent.

"As I was saying, Erik had us locked up, but then some men came and let us out. Then we tried to escape, because we knew something was wrong, and for good reason. They brought us aboard a ship going to Göteborg, and I'm sure the guardian knew… Oh, if I could get my hands on him!"

Valka looked at me, confused. What did I say?

"Astrid, we need to tell you something, but…don't get upset…"

She turned and knocked on a trap door in the deck.

"It's okay, you can come out, Erik."

Then, the man in the wolfskin came out of the trapdoor. I didn't understand. What was _he_ doing here?

"I…but…what?" I stuttered.

"Astrid, Erik is my brother. He was under contract to work for Drago. What he did to you and Hiccup was inexcusable, but he's on our side now."

Valka had a brother? Amazing, you really did learn something new every day…I knew I should trust Valka, so this guy must have been respectable after all… I needed to know more, but that wasn't important right now. I needed to finish telling my story.

"Alright, I trust you," I said, smiling. "Now, where was I? Right: we arrived at Göteborg. So the men brought us to this huge castle, apparently owned by the person they kept calling 'Master'. And they told us it was totally at our disposal until further notice."

"Oh man, you must've been having a good time these last few days!" Ruffnut said.

 _You have no idea_ , I thought to myself—but I definitely couldn't say that in front of everyone. I grabbed her by the neck and looked her straight in the eyes.

"One more crack like that and I swear to you I'll throw you overboard!" I hissed.

She shut up then, but she still had a smile at the corners of her lips.

"And this morning when I woke up, Hiccup wasn't there…so I went downstairs to see where he'd gone, but when I went into the dining room, Hiccup was there, but so was Drago."

They turned and exchanged strange looks—they didn't seem shocked by my news. But how could they have already known? I lifted my head towards Erik—of course.

"But I guess you already knew that…Anyway, Hiccup stayed there, to protect me. Drago said that he had to obey him or else he'd hurt me, so Hiccup didn't hesitate for a second, and Drago's guards seized me, and now I'm here…He saved me," I said, my voice barely above a murmur.

"But what does he want with Hiccup?" Gobber asked.

"I have no idea, he just kept talking about how he needed Hiccup's talents for some 'personal project'."

"His talents…with dragons? Oh no…" Valka said.

"What could this nutcase possibly have in mind?" Gobber asked.

"We absolutely need to get him free from Drago," Valka said.

"Yeah, but before that, we're going to need to get back to Berk and get our dragons," I said. "It will work out," I said, putting a reassuring hand on Valka's shoulder. "Everything's going to be okay."

I wanted to believe what I was saying, but I was so scared for him. How could I imagine a life without him? He was everything to me, my world revolved around him… It was with a heavy heart that I waited for the end of the voyage home, so that I could finally come up with a plan to save him. _Hang on, Hiccup._


	9. Chapter 9

_**Heyyy guys!**_

 _ **As you know, Whosthatgal is translating my fic and she just finished this chapter! (I love it so much in english)**_

 _ **I know it's been a long time but this chapter is serioulsy one of my favourite! So hope you'll like it! Tell me what think in your comments, that's very important to me! We're approaching the end... Only three more chapters to come!**_

 _ **Enjoy your reading!**_

* * *

I could still hear Drago's sinister laughter echoing throughout the castle as his men led me to my new cell. The dungeon was hidden deep in the fortress, and we walked down long, straight hallways that were dark and infested with all manner of rats and insects. The men marched quickly, and their pace was hard on my metal leg; it hurt, and I fell several times, having to pick myself up again while they looked on in amusement, sometimes tripping me again.

"Come on, move it," "What are you waiting for? Get up!" they said to me.

Once I saw through their little game, I realized it that these words and actions were only the beginning of what was waiting for me. We finally arrived at the prison; they pushed me inside, ordering me to take off all my clothes except my pants. I complied wordlessly, and more men came to pick up my discarded clothing. Still others entered the cell, approaching me with long metal chains.

"Wait…what are you doing?" I asked.

"You're our prisoner," one of the men declared. "We can do whatever we want to you."

Two men seized me by the wrists and fastened them into shackles, which they suspended from the walls by a hook. They finished by shackling my feet together. I found myself with my arms stretched tight, my feet barely touching the floor and my body tensed, at the mercy of my captors. I lifted my head with difficulty to face them; there were six total, and I was alone.

One of them approached me, smiling viciously, and slapped me—three times—before stepping back.

"That'll teach you not to disrespect the Master, filthy vermin! This isn't your turf—Drago is in charge here! And nobody resists the Master here!" he shouted, addressing me with a fresh blow to the head.

Then he turned back toward the group, beckoning them closer.

"I think we're going to have a great time with this one, boys," he said.

He turned back towards me, closing in this time with a baton in his hand.

"So, Chief of Berk…" he asked, "How's it feel to find yourself here with us? Are you scared?"

"Scared of you?" I replied. "Never."

In reality the opposite was true: I was terrified. I wasn't like Astrid—she was strong. I was weak. I had no idea what they might subject me to. They were allies of Drago… and Drago was unpredictable.

They all laughed, and the man drew his face close to mine, his expression demented.

"We'll see about that, filthy one-legged boy!" he said, landing a blow right at the stump of my leg.

While the old injury hurt a little even at the best of times, the kick reawakened a kind of pain I thought I'd outgrown a long time ago. Seeing my reaction, he struck me again and again in the same place. Every muscle in my body contracted with each new brutality, and I gritted my teeth.

"What's the dragon master got to say for himself now? Huh, weakling? You're nothing without your Night Fury!" he practically spit.

I fixed him with dark eyes, saying nothing. I wasn't about to enter back into his little game.

"Ah, what's going on? Not answering anymore? You want some more, is that it?"

He hit me over the head several times with the baton, and my vision started to blur.

"You understand that? Huh? Answer me!" he shouted.

When I still didn't react, he continued.

"You're lucky, you know that? Drago doesn't lend his castle to everybody. Did you have a nice time, you and your whore wife?" he mocked.

"Don't you talk about her!" I protested, struggling in vain to fight back.

He nodded to one of his men, who moved behind me with something in his hands. The first man looked at me defiantly, a smile at the corner of his mouth.

"Ah, so that's how we get you to react? What we're putting you through is nothing compared to what we do to some of our prisoners. Not to say that we wouldn't be happy to do more, mind you—believe me, we would if we could—but like I've been telling you for the last hour, Drago's the chief here, and he ordered us not to wreck you up too badly."

I struggled to move as best I could, but there was nothing I could do, chained up as I was. I settled for staring daggers at the man in front of me.

"But as long as Drago's not here…" he said with a smile, "we can do what we want."

And then the pain hit me—the lash of a whip against my back—and I let a cry escape my mouth.

"One!" the man shouted.

The man behind me had given me a single, violent lash, this time to my upper back. I hardly had time to catch my breath before he struck a second blow.

"Ah!" I moaned, clenching my teeth.

"Two!" the men chanted, the whole group at once.

A third blow fell, then a fourth and a fifth and a sixth, and so on, all the way to the tenth lash. I screamed. The pain was unbearable, and I could feel the sting of my damaged skin something fierce. I had spit blood, and there was more dripping from my back onto the floor, its odour filling the cell.

"Ten!" the men shouted.

"So, what do you say? Shall we keep going?" the leader asked me.

Just then we heard heavy footsteps. An imposing shadow approached the dungeon, and we heard a deep voice curse furiously.

"What's going on here?" Drago asked, addressing his men.

"We're teaching this one a little lesson in respecting the Master," the leader answered.

Drago entered the cell and strode towards me, lifting my head. He examined me, then asked, "I dare to hope this little encounter might've changed your mind. You don't look too beaten up, just as I asked. You'll be back on your feet in no time—or rather, your foot," he said, laughing. "Guards! Untie him—that will do for today." He left without glancing back at me.

His men obeyed, and undid the shackles around my hands and feet. I fell heavily to the floor, with no strength left to hold myself up. The men left me that way in the prison.

"Rest up," the leader called.

I stayed there on the ground, unable to move, the pain these barbaric men had inflicted on me still fresh. But despite all that, all my thoughts went back to Astrid. I still didn't know what happened to her, and I hoped against hope that she'd been able to escape unseen. It didn't look like there was anybody but me in this dungeon. Astrid was strong—surely she'd been able to escape. I couldn't even entertain the possibility that these men had hurt her. I loved her too much. I was overflowing with love for her, unconditionally, and I knew she returned it, in every sense of the word. And to think that at nineteen, we'd still doubted our feelings for one another…Today, I couldn't let her go.

We'd had a hard time admitting our feelings, even though we were both surrounded by the evidence of them—we were more than just friends…

 _It was just after Heather left. I was sad to see Astrid to lose her—they were really good friends now, and I could see that it was all affecting Astrid. I caught her attention:_

 _"Hey, I know you guys got pretty close…I'm sorry you're losing a friend."_

 _She grabbed me by the shoulder, placing her other hand on my chest._

 _"But…I still have you," she said, smiling._

 _I smiled back, and we turned our attention to the sky, where we could still see Heather's dragon heading off toward new horizons. I threw an arm around her waist, and our heads leaned towards each other. Astrid rested her head on my shoulder._

 _"You think she'll come back?"_

 _I pulled her towards me, holding her in my arms, and stroked her back in reassurance._

 _"This whole story with Dagur has her upset, but eventually she'll be able to accept the truth. And when she has, she'll be back. I'm sure of that."_

 _She looked up and smiled at me. We detached ourselves from each other, and she ran a hand through her hair. She did that when she was self-conscious._

 _"Come on, let's go inside," I suggested._

 _She followed me, and we continued our conversation on the way back._

 _"So you two had a good time together?" I asked. "What did you do?"_

 _"She showed me how to use her double-ended axe, and we practiced axe-throwing! And we talked a lot too."_

 _"Oh man! You should've seen Ruff's face when you said you were going to have 'girl time' and left without her!"_

 _I lifted my head. Astrid seemed nervous._

 _"What is it?"_

 _"Hiccup… uh… about that… Heather asked me if… if we were together. The two of us."_

 _My eyes widened in surprise. I hadn't expected her to tell me what exactly they'd talked about—much less that it would be, well, that._

 _"And what did you…?"_

 _"I said we were just friends, because…well, that's what we are…friends, right?"_

 _My heart was beating much faster than it should have. I was disconcerted. Were we just friends?_

 _"Yeah, of course," I replied, uncertain of my answer._

 _She went through the motions of smiling, but I got the feeling she was disappointed. I gave her the same embarrassed smile, and we continued on toward our respective huts without addressing it. Once we arrived, as we were about to part ways, I tried to make up for it._

 _"Hey," I said, one hand on her shoulder guard, "if you're ever feeling alone, I'm not far away, okay?"_

 _She put a hand on my shoulder too. "Okay," she said, smiling._

 _I returned the smile, and steered myself towards my hut, heart pounding—then glanced behind me to see if Astrid was looking at me. She was._

 _The weeks passed, and Astrid and I hadn't talked about the two of us since Heather's departure. The weeks were already busy, between my flight tests, training an adolescent Speedstinger and the temporary separation of Snotlout and his dragon… and that's where I was faced with a new problem._

 _"I said no, Snotlout."_

 _"But Hiccup, we need to go to Berk!" he protested._

 _"But we were there just last week! What do you still need?"_

 _"I need…things…It's none of your business! I just need them, that's all," he said, crossing his arms._

 _"Okay, so it's still a no," I declared._

 _He'd put me in a bad mood. I closed the book I'd been trying to read and headed for the exit, but Snotlout was still at it._

 _"Come on, Hiccup, please?"_

 _"Snotlout, I said no, so that means no!" I said, annoyed. "Will you let it go?"_

 _I tried to be on my way, but Fishlegs approached me, all out of breath._

 _"Ah! Hiccup! We absolutely have to go to Berk! I'm right on the verge of making an amazing discovery with the Dragon Eye! But I can't translate a few of the symbols, and the book I need is still on Berk, so…"_

 _"Are you sure it's absolutely necessary, Fishlegs?" I cut in._

 _"Really, Hiccup?" Fishlegs said, indignant._

 _"Hiccup!" a voice cried in the distance._

 _It was Ruffnut, accompanied by Tuffnut, who she seemed to be helping walk. Tuff seemed hurt, and Chicken, who was following them close behind, didn't look so good either._

 _"Hiccup! Tuffnut's sick! He and his chicken are getting totally crazy!"_

 _"Ruff, what do you mean by 'crazy?'" I asked, a little amused._

 _"Don't worry, sis, I'm fine—" Tuff ended his sentence in a sneeze._

 _I looked at her, perplexed. "I don't see what the big deal is—looks like he's just caught a cold. Get him some rest, and he should be fine, okay?"_

 _Tuffnut suddenly dropped to the floor, grovelling and sniffling._

 _"And the chicken! Where's the chicken? Who took my chicken? Chicken is mine, she's nothing without me!"_

 _Then he stood up, facing me, ready to throw a punch._

 _"Was it you who took her? You filthy chicken thief! Bring her back to me right away!" Tuffnut yelled._

 _I took a few steps back, and Snotlout and Fishlegs stepped in to hold Tuff back. I sighed._

 _"Fine, okay, he's sick," I admitted._

 _"Hiccup! You've gotta come see what's—wait, what's going on here?" Astrid said._

 _"Let me go!" Tuffnut shouted._

 _"Chicken is right there, Tuff!" Ruffnut assured him, to no avail._

 _I turned toward Astrid._

 _"What? Oh, you want to go to Berk too? Okay, fine! You guys win! But it'll be without me!" I said._

 _I left, heading in the direction of my hut. I had other things to do._

 _I was sitting in front of my worktable, surrounded by discarded sketches. I was checking the calculations on my latest invention, making sure they were right, when I heard footsteps approaching behind me. I turned my head—it was Astrid. I plunged back into my sketches._

 _"What are you doing here?" I asked, surprised._

 _She came up to the table and stood next to me, arms crossed._

 _"Well, I stayed behind to keep you company," she grinned, visibly amused._

 _"What?"_

 _"Nothing, just bugging you. You should've seen yourself earlier, trying to wrangle those four back at the clubhouse—it was hilarious," she said. "What are you working on that's so important you wanted to stay behind all by yourself?"_

 _"I'm working on a project…" I said, my voice small._

 _"What kind of project?" she said, glancing over my shoulder as she placed a hand on it. "If you say 'dragonfly three,' I'll…"_

 _"Well, actually…" I stammered._

 _"Hiccup, you've got to be kidding me!" she groaned. "You know full well what I think about that."_

 _"But…the second flight test was a success," I countered._

 _"Great! So leave it that way!" she exclaimed._

 _"No, but wait! The Dragonfly Three is a total innovation! The Dragonfly Two worked great, but it wasn't that practical, and it was too heavy—but this one, the one I've just invented—Astrid, it's an actual flightsuit!"_

 _"A flight…suit," she asked, stunned._

 _"Yeah," I replied, "but I'll need somebody by my side while I test it…"_

 _"Me?" she asked, amused._

 _"If you want," I answered._

 _"But why do you need me? You already have Toothless."_

 _"Well, you can't be too careful."_

 _"Alright, fine, let's try this thing," she grinned. "But you'd better hurry up and do it before I change my mind."_

 _I didn't need to be told twice; I left to go change. I put on the flightsuit, the one I'd spent entire nights working on. Putting it on was difficult, but once I was inside it, I'd never felt more at ease. I went back out to meet Astrid, fully dressed in my new invention._

 _"Ta-da!" I said, holding out my arms._

 _Astrid's expression was a little odd. She was looking at me strangely, surveying me up and down, and I thought I saw her blush a little._

 _"Wow, it looks really…um…tight…"_

 _"Yep, that's on purpose, to make it more aerodynamic, and…well, never mind, let's go test it!"_

 _We left the clubhouse to go find our dragons. The stables were empty, and it felt strange; it wasn't often that Astrid and I found ourselves alone, just the two of us. We each called our respective dragons, and just like that, Toothless and Stormfly arrived._

 _"Alright, bud, you ready for another test flight?"_

 _"Come on, let's get this over with," Astrid said as she mounted Stormfly._

 _I looked up at the sky, then got on Toothless, giving him an affectionate pat on the head._

 _"Here we go, bud!"_

 _The four of us took off in search of the perfect place to test my new invention. We spent about fifteen minutes on dragonback before finding ourselves back at the same place I'd done my earlier tests. We positioned ourselves on the highest point, where the wind was perfect for a solo flight. I dismounted from my dragon and walked to the edge of the cliff, and I could already feel the wind in my hair. It was nice._

 _"And here we are: the perfect place!" I declared._

 _"You're sure this is going to work?" she said, a hint of worry in her voice._

 _I turned to face her, and did my best to reassure her._

 _"Don't worry, Astrid, everything's under control. And if anything happens to me, Toothless is right there…and you are, too," I said, smiling at her._

 _She still looked anxious, but it seemed I'd managed to reassure her a little. I turned and called Toothless toward me, giving him a pat on the head._

 _"Okay, bud, I'm going to jump off this cliff, and if everything works out, I should be able to fly, okay? And if anything goes wrong, I'll call you, okay?" He groaned in agreement. "Perfect."_

 _I positioned myself right at the edge, and jumped. I waited until I was a few centimetres from the water before deploying my wings, and then I was flying. I was soaring, just like the wind underneath me. I'd succeeded, and I shouted out with joy._

 _"Hahaha! It works, it works!" I cried._

 _Suddenly I was gaining altitude without meaning to. I didn't want to lose the newfound height, but I was barrelling towards a big pillar of rocks on my right. I managed to steer to the left of them, but I wasn't able to avoid them completely. They grazed me, and suddenly I was in free-fall. With no way to right myself, I ended up crashing to the ground._

 _Regaining consciousness little by little, I heard a voice:_

 _"I knew I shouldn't have let you do this!" she cried, completely panicked._

 _When I opened my eyes, Astrid was bent over me, Toothless and Stormfly on either side of her._

 _"Hiccup! Don't move!" she yelled, leaning over me. "Are you hurt?"_

 _The sand and my wings had successfully broken my fall, but I could feel a sharp pain in my right arm._

 _"I think I'm okay," I said, "but my right arm hurts a little…"_

 _"Can you get up?" she said, offering me her hand._

 _I took it, and was able to get up without difficulty. Then she grabbed my right arm and pulled back my sleeve. I cried out._

 _"Okay, we'll take a look at that when we get back. Can you get back on Toothless?"_

 _I relented; I had nothing to add. She was scared for me, that was for sure, but it seemed like she was also pretty angry at me. I climbed back onto my dragon the best I could, and it was all I could do to stay up there without falling. Toothless was laughing at me._

 _We made our way back to the Edge, and Astrid helped me dismount from Toothless. She brought me to her hut and we went inside. She sat me down on her bed._

 _"Take this off so I can see the the damage," she said, gesturing to my shirt._

 _I complied without a word, and despite the pain in my right arm, I was able to take it off with my left. Astrid froze for a split second at the sight of my torso, but she snapped out of it just as quickly, leaning over me to examine my injuries up close. In reality, I was a lot more beaten up than I'd realized: my left arm was covered in scrapes and bruises, and my right arm had a few nasty scratches. My leggings were fine, although I could feel a few bruises forming._

 _Astrid took my head between her hands. "What about up here? Does your head hurt?"_

 _"No, no, it's fine."_

 _"Good. You've just got a few scrapes—we'll get those cleaned up and they should heal pretty quick. Now, let's see your arm."_

 _I presented my right arm and she took it gently, examining it._

 _"No cuts or abrasions or bruises…Can you bend it?"_

 _I tried to bend my elbow, but just moving it at all hurt my arm something fierce. I gritted my teeth._

 _"No, I can't."_

 _"It must be broken…" she said. "Wait here, I'll be right back."_

 _She had definitely gone looking for first aid supplies. She was right—my arm was broken. What an idiot I'd made of myself, all while trying to prove my inventions were good for something…I'd failed at that, to say the least. She came back a few minutes later with a bucket of water and a cloth, along with some alcohol. She sat next to me on the edge of the bed._

 _"Alright, give me your left arm."_

 _She took my arm and started cleaning it with the water without another word, then applied a few drops of alcohol on each of my wounds. Finally, she spoke again._

 _"Look at this! It could have been so much worse, and you got away with a broken arm!" she exclaimed. She lifted her head towards me. "Do you realize, Hiccup? You could have been more seriously wounded."_

 _"But I..."_

 _"You are completely unconscious, irresponsible and immature! You always want to do more-push the limits-well, this is what it leads to! You'll not be able to fly for a while, and Toothless will be punished because of you."_

 _"Astrid, I…"_

 _"Anyway, I told you it was a bad idea, but, as always, you didn't listen to me! You did what you wanted anyway..."_

 _She dipped her washcloth back in the water and leaned toward my face to clean the scrapes on my temple, dabbing carefully at the scratch on my eyebrow._

 _"I should have stopped you while there was still time… I should have seen that it was going wrong. I wasn't fast enough, I should have hurried. I would have arrived in time and—"_

 _"I love you."_

 _"I'm so sorry, Hiccup. I know that—" she paused. "Wait, what did you just say?"_

 _I leaned my face close to hers, drew her toward me and kissed her. After a few moments, I gently pulled my lips back from hers._

 _"I love you, Astrid Hofferson."_

 _Her expression was a little troubled at first, but it was tender, too._

 _"I know I should've said this to you a long time ago, but I was scared you'd reject me, and now…well, now, I'm still a little scared of that, but I'm a lot more scared of losing you, and never getting the chance. So…there it is: I've loved you since day one, and I know that, for you, we were just kids then—but I never forgot those times you kissed me. Those mattered to me, Astrid."_

 _"Hiccup… I know what I said, and I still think that, but… what I want to say is that we're not kids anymore, and the feelings I have for you now aren't the same as before…"_

 _I lowered my head—I could see where she was going with this._

 _"Hiccup," she said, lifting my head again and smiling at me, "I was scared too, because I knew I was falling in love with you for real."_

 _I wrapped my one good arm around her and held her tight against me; she wrapped her arms around me. We stayed like that for a moment, soaking up what was happening. Then we broke apart from each other, softly—although Astrid accidentally put her weight on my right arm._

 _"Ow, watch the arm!" I said, wincing._

 _"Oh shoot, sorry!"_

 _We threw each other the exact same amused look, and burst out laughing. We smiled affectionately at one another, and then Astrid asked:_

 _"So…more than friends?" she smiled._

 _I smiled back even wider._

 _"I think we could say that."_

* * *

I had come alone, and I was leaving alone. I hadn't succeeded in retrieving Hiccup, even though I'd wanted to so badly. Looking out at the horizon, at the sea, inevitably made my thoughts drift to him—and the fact that I was getting further and further way from him. I stayed there, thinking, hoping against hope I'd be able to help him. I heard uneven footsteps approaching behind me—it was Gobber. He came and stood beside me.

"What are you thinking about?" he asked me.

"Hiccup…I never should've left him the other day when we argued. If I hadn't done that, all of this could've been avoided and he'd still be with us now…"

"Astrid, if I have any good advice to give you, it's that there's no sense in living in the past. You and Hiccup are the same—always blaming yourselves for things. Sometimes it's not your fault—sometimes it's nobody's fault! It's just life—life is just like that, Astrid, whether you like it or not."

He put a hand on my shoulder.

"And between us, staying here worrying about it isn't going to do anything to help Hiccup."

"You're right, Gobber—I've been letting my feelings get the best of me, and that's not going to help Hiccup. Let's go back to the others."

It was with a much more determined stride that I headed back to the rest of the group—the same group that had saved my life.

"I need to say a huge thank-you to all of you. Thank you for coming looking for Hiccup and me, and even if I'm the only one here to say it, I'm sure Hiccup will be back with us before too long. In the meantime, I'll fill in for him as best as I can."

"So…if I'm following this…you're the chief now?" Tuffnut asked.

"Basically, yeah."

"Cool! A girl chief!" Ruffnut said. She ran up to me and grabbed me from behind. "Girl power!" she said, raising her fist in the air.

I extracted myself from her grip, throwing her a dark look. Eret approached her.

"It's just temporary, Ruff," he said.

"Okay, now that's been cleared up, I want to know something; where are your dragons?"

"We left them on the isle of night furies. It was too risky to bring them here with us," Fishlegs explained.

"Okay, so that's where we're headed next…I hope Stormfly is still there…"

Erik steered the ship toward his island. Several hours later, we arrived. We disembarked from the ship and each of us began calling our respective dragons.

"Meatlug! Come here, girl! Daddy's back!" Fishlegs called.

"Barf! Belch! Get over here!" the twins yelled.

They were reunited with their dragons before long—but even though I called and called, there was no sign of either Stormfly or Toothless. Erik didn't seem to be able to find his dragon, either.

"Lifa! Where are you?" he called.

Suddenly, the Night Furies came towards him, looking like they wanted to show him something. I climbed onto Cloudjumper behind Valka, and Erik grabbed onto one of the Night Furies. We followed them to the place they seemed to want to bring us to, and there were even more Night Furies waiting for us there. I dismounted carefully from Cloudjumper and went to stand behind Erik, who seemed like he was beginning to understand what was going on. Curious, I turned my head to see what he was looking at, and what I saw made me break into a smile.

Erik's Night Fury, Lifa, had laid eggs—and guess who was by her side, defending them? It was Toothless. And who was standing right by his side, helping her best friend with such an important task? None other than Stormfly.

I almost couldn't believe it—our dragons had apparently been through a lot while we'd been gone…I approached Stormfly softly so as not to scare the future parents, and gave her an affectionate pat on the head.

"Oh, Stormfly…I missed you so much, girl…But you were here, helping Toothless protect his eggs? That's amazing, girl!"

I was so happy to be with her again—and not to have lost Toothless. I was scared that I wouldn't be able to find him again without Hiccup…And having Toothless here, well, that was really going to help out with the plan I'd been forming to rescue Hiccup. It was about time I let the others in on it, actually—they'd definitely be able to help. I distanced myself from my dragon for just a moment, turning to the rest of the group.

"Okay, now that we've found our dragons, we need to get out of here. We're going back to Berk—I have a plan."


	10. Chapter 10

_**Hi guys!**_

 _ **Woah! I'm so glad to come back with a new chapter! The end is near! Only two more chapters to go! They'll be post very soon cause as I'm going to Annecy, I'm translating the chapters whith megtoons to give my strory translated to Dean DeBlois!**_

 _ **So that's good for you guys, cause you'll finally how I decided to ended this story so many years ago (hopefully before the trailers comes xD)…**_

 _ **I want to send a big thank you to wolfie-dragon-rider and chiefhiccstrid who corrected it! Thank you a lot guys!**_

 _ **Now I hope this chapter will please you!**_

 **EDIT : Whosthatgal improved it! ;)**

* * *

"And if all goes well, Hiccup will be saved," I said, confident.

I'd told them my plan; it was up to them now to decide to follow me or not.

"Your plan sounds good, Astrid, but I have a question: how do you plan on getting the plans for the Night Fury tail?" Gobber asked.

"I'll manage," I said icily.

I knew it would take some time, but I would get there, I would find it, for Hiccup. The twins—as per usual—looked visibly confused about the plan, especially Tuffnut.

"What is it?" I asked him.

"So there's one thing I don't get about your plan!" he said. "The thing about the tailfin, so that Toothless can fly on his own and go find Hiccup and all that, okay… but why send Toothless, when he's the _only_ dragon that can't fly on his own? That sounds… kinda dumb."

I stepped toward him, glaring at him all the while, and didn't speak until I drew level with him.

"Toothless is the only one capable of bringing him back," I said dryly.

Tuffnut threw his hands in the air, admitting defeat.

"Okay, great—who's with me?"

Everyone raised their fists proudly, signalling their agreement.

"That's more like it."

...

It had been a month now since Hiccup was captured by Drago, a month since I'd heard any word from him, a month that we'd been apart, a month of missing him—a month I'd been searching for the plans for the automatic tailfin for his dragon. And still, nothing. I couldn't believe how much time had passed without him.

I found myself in the forge, leaning my head on Hiccup's desk. I had looked everywhere—in absolutely every nook and cranny I could find, and I'd still come up empty-handed. So I stayed there, mulling over all of this, alone in Hiccup's old refuge—right up until I heard a knock on the door. I lifted my head—it was Gobber.

"Astrid," he said, shaking his head.

"Hmm?"

"It's late…you should go get some rest, you've spent all day searching again today. Come on."

He offered me his hand, and I took it. How could I explain that this place was the only link with Hiccup I still had? This was the only place that brought me any comfort. At home, I had nightmares, terrible nightmares. Every night since Hiccup's capture I awoke in a cold sweat, panicked, and the nightmares would start right up again—but how could I say that to Gobber? I couldn't. He was worried enough about me as it was.

He walked me home, and I gave him a grateful hug goodbye.

"Thanks, Gobber," I whispered.

I pushed open the heavy door to our hut and stepped inside, without making a sound. Valka came back in her old house since I was alone. She was sleeping in our room—formerly Stoick's—while I had decided to spend my nights in Hiccup's old bedroom, where I could feel his unique presence. Erik was lodging in Valka's small hut. I headed upstairs, being careful not to wake her, and I threw myself across the bed. And then, I cried. Days' worth of accumulated pressure came out of me like this every night now, followed by my nightmares. I wasn't used to crying, but Hiccup's absence had changed everything.

"No!" I screamed.

I was panting—all lost. Overwhelmed, I swept my gaze around the room—Hiccup's room. I ended up calming myself and gently replaced my head on the pillow. I drew the blanket close to me in order to smell it—Hiccup's scent still emanated from the fabric. I curled up, tightening the thick blankets against me, and went back to sleep.

When I opened my eyes, the sun was all there, so the morning was well underway… I scolded myself for waking up so late. I jumped out of bed and dressed quickly, then I left the hut without having breakfast. Toothless and Stormfly were waiting for me outside to do their morning flight. So I climbed Toothless' back and placed my foot on the pedal to handle his tail fin. Hiccup had shown it to me so many times that now I knew exactly how to make it work. We took off—followed by Stormfly—and we went for a flight.

Flying without Hiccup, it wasn't the same… Before, whenever we went for a flight, we always had new adventures, we always tried things we'd never tried before—we both liked he wasn't there and days were monotonous. It was like I was reliving the same day all over again and I couldn't break free from this vicious circle. Without Hiccup, my life had no sense, my world revolved around him and him only.

We'd been flying for almost a quarter of an hour—it was time to get back, especially since it was getting cloudy. I made Toothless lean to the left to head towards Berk, and we got back to the village. We landed and I barely had the time to put a foot on the ground before the night fury was already on his way to Valka's hut—where Erik was now—and Lifa too. I followed him in a hurry to greet Erik and his dragon—closely followed by Stormfly. But when we reached the hut, Lifa was nowhere to be found. Erik was standing before the doorstep, a smile in the corner of his lips.

"What is going on? Where's Lifa?" I asked.

"She left with her eggs in the isle's heights, it's time…"

"What do you mean? She's about to have her babies? Right now?" I said, more and more surprised.

"Night furies are very special, you know," Erik said. "Unlike other dragons, their eggs don't explode. They lay the eggs right after mating, and the babies lay dormant until there's a powerful enough storm… like today. They must be struck by lightning to hatch."

"Really? Lightning?! I guess that...makes sense… Well, I think I'll have to ride Toothless up there then! See you later!"

 _Glad these eggs don't explode… it's one less problem to solve!_ So I took off with Toothless—looking for Lifa—beneath the storm. With the rain coming down in torrents like this, I could barely see anything. Even Stormfly had chosen to not come.

Toothless finally used his plasma wave to locate Lifa's presence, and we set off at full speed towards one of Berk's peaks. We landed near the female night fury and I let Toothless join her. His protective side—that he'd shown toward Hiccup for so long—was coming out now, in all its glory, with his family that was just about to be formed. Rain and wind were blustering all around me, I was soaking wet, but this scene made me so happy that I didn't care.

Suddenly, the thunder rolled just overhead, and a few seconds later lightning struck the three eggs at once. It was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. Three small night furies came out of the eggs and their parents licked them clean. They were adorable, and I couldn't believe I had the chance to be a part of this. Toothless seemed so happy… He raised his head towards me and I smiled at him, seized with emotion. It was at this very moment he realized he missed his master terribly, because he wasn't there—next to me.

...

Two months had passed since Hiccup had gone. The night fury babies had all grown up, they were flying with their parents now. As for me, I still had hope, I had found one of Toothless' auto-tail plans—it was a good start. So I was in the forge, trying to decipher Hiccup's plan to know what I needed to built the tail.

"Twenty tons of steel… Uh… no, twenty kilos! Twenty kilos of steel!" I exclaimed. "I'm not gonna make it…" I sighed, head in hands, my arms leaning on a table.

I went back to my difficult deciphering when I suddenly heard voices raising from the centre of the village. I jumped out of my chair and rushed towards the sound of Berkians cheering. A young woman with braided ebony hair climbed down from her razorwhip to greet me.

"Astrid!" she cried, running into my arms.

"Heather? What are you doing here?" I asked, disconcerted.

"Well, I came to see you and the gang!" she exclaimed.

"You're not in conflict with someone at the moment?" I asked.

"And no, my last conflicts came to an end weeks ago already! So I'm on sort of vacation, I guess? That's why I came—to say hello!"

"You always have a home here, Heather. You can stay as long as you want."

"Thank you Astrid, that's very kind of you. Anyway, everything's going great on Berk, I assume? I didn't see the gang running up to meet me… Where did they all go?" she asked, jokingly, but with a worried look in her eyes nevertheless.

"Uh… Follow me to the forge, would you? I've got one or two things to tell you…"

So she followed me to the forge. I invited her to grab a chair and sat down next to her by my working table. I took her hand.

"Heather, what I'm going to say is hard to hear so—"

"Astrid, what is it? You're scaring me…"

I took a deep breath.

"Hiccup is being held hostage by Drago Bludvist."

Her face crumbled and she put her hand over her mouth.

"What? But how?" she said, shocked.

"We both got captured, but Drago wanted Hiccup for himself and Hiccup refused to go with him so Drago said if he disobeyed him, he'd come after me…"

"So Hiccup stayed to protect you… It's so him… But what are you waiting for to go find him?"

"We can't, Gobber and Valka made a deal to save me from Drago's men. And anyway, we wouldn't stand a chance, we aren't enough to defeat them… Drago's fleet is huge and Göteborg is a merchant town—too few people there even know that dragons exist..."

"Drago is in Göteborg? But what is he doing down there?"

"I don't know but the fact he needs Hiccup's help in his plan doesn't bode well…"

"I know you Astrid, you're not the type to give up so easily—so what are you going to do about it?"

"The deal was _we_ never come back to Göteborg but… he never mentioned the dragons. I'm going to send Toothless to find Hiccup."

"The only dragon who can't fly alone? Hiccup has really rubbed off on you, you've lost me with your 'element of surprise' tactic!"

"Only Toothless can find him—plus he's also really discreet, unlike the other dragons. And don't worry about his solo flight—look."

I showed her the sketches on the table. She stared at them, perplexed, then she raised her eyes and looked questioningly towards me.

"Hmm… What is this?"

"Hiccup made Toothless a tail so he could fly all alone, but Toothless didn't want it. However, there are still some sketches and plans in his workshop that I'm trying to find in order to build this tail again so he can save Hiccup."

"Good plan. And where are you at exactly?"

"Well, I only found the material checklist I'll need to do it. I was deciphering it before you got here."

"And what are the others doing?"

"They're in charge of information. Valka and Gobber are trying to rally the other tribes to our cause. Meanwhile, the rest of the gang is keeping an eye on what's going on in Göteborg."

"Astrid," she said with a smile, "I'm going to do everything I can to help you find Hiccup, I give you my word."

She held me tight and I cracked. It was too much. She just got back and she was already offering her help. I tried to hold back my tears but I didn't manage to do it.

"I miss him…" I whispered.

She caressed my hair, trying to console me, but I was inconsolable.

"Oh… Astrid… It's gonna be okay… You're strong… We will save him, together," she stuttered.

I was strong, yes, but right now I just couldn't be.

Spent the whole day in the forge together, deciphering the checklist of things we'd need to make Toothless' tail. We successfully deciphered the checklist in its totality and we even started to understand the schematic of the tailfin on the list a little. Heather had promised she'd help me, and I knew she meant it.

The gang finally arrived, and were surprised to see Heather by my side. Snotlout ran into her direction and took her in his arms.

"Heather! It's been a while!" he exclaimed.

She quickly extricated herself from his grip, but it was twins' turn to lunge at her.

"So, Heather, what brings you to Berk?" Tuffnut asked..

"Is there a particular reason for your presence here?" Ruffnut raised.

Fishlegs approached Heather timidly in order to greet her in his turn and calm the situation.

"Hey Heather, how's it been going since the last time we saw you?"

"Really well, thank you Fishlegs," she answered with a fruity little voice.

"The village is throwing a party to celebrate your arrival Heather, let's go to the Great Hall," I announced.

"Fishlegs, will you come with me?" Heather asked.

"Who? Me?"

"Who else?" she smiled.

"Uh yeah, sure…"

So they headed together, hand in hand, for the Great Hall, I was starting to follow them when I heard Snotlout's lamentations behind me.

"How could she prefer that to this?!" he said, gesturing to himself.

"And he still wonders why I'm not interested in him?" Ruffnut sighed to her brother.

We finally entered the imposing building. The party was in full swing inside—everybody appreciated Heather a lot on Berk and it was different from the usual atmosphere that prevailed in the village lately. We sat at a table all together and we started to talk about everything and nothing, it has been a while. I didn't spend time with all my friends much anymore, and I missed it.

"You know Heather, you can sleep in my hut tonight if you've got nowhere to go? Of course, it would only be temporary, well I mean—" offered Fishlegs clumsily to Heather.

"I'd be happy to stay with you, Fishlegs," Heather answered gently, smiling while looking at him amorously.

She was becoming incredibly dumb when it came to Fishlegs, I should tell her someday… I now had a true friend ready to help me and who supported me. Heather was my friend and I was happy she was there, by my side.

...

One month had passed since Heather's arrival on Berk. We successfully found all Toothless' tail plans despite the excellent hiding place Hiccup had chosen for them. Thanks to Heather, I managed to decrypt them all and we had started building the prototype with Gobber's help. We were missing some elements for the processing, but we were on track to finish it soon enough to save Hiccup. Heather gave me back hope, a hope that was growing each day. I even resumed patrols—I was in great shape. I was—by the way—in the middle of a raid accompanied by Heather, Fishlegs and Snotlout. We were moving towards Göteborg in order to learn more about Drago's intentions and projects. So we were going to check on the ships' traffic in and out of the town. For the first time since Hiccup was gone, I was confident and I felt helpful. We had barely arrived but Snotlout had already spotted a boat.

"There's something suspicious about this ship…" he said.

"I have a bad feeling about it too," Fishlegs agreed. "Let's go take a closer look!"

So we followed the boys to approach the ship to get a better look and see what was going on inside. We were concealed behind rocks to hide our presence and we observed the ship.

"Hey! Look! There are dragons in cages on deck!" Snotlout exclaimed.

"Oh my Thor! Oh my Thor! Oh my Thor!" Fishlegs repeated, panicked.

"These dragons are armoured!" I noticed.

"And those cages, those chains… They look like the ones Dagur used!" Heather noted.

We looked at each other simultaneously.

"Drago!" we shouted.

Snotlout and Fishlegs stared at us, perplexed.

"Since the beginning, it was Drago! He started his revenge much sooner than we could imagine… He's the one who sold the dragon-proof ships to Dagur in the first place!" Heather exclaimed.

"And now, these armed dragons! He's preparing a war by all the gods!"

"Well—girls, not that I want to interrupt you but—I think we got spotted!" Snotlout quipped.

"Let's get out of here!" Heather shouted.

We moved away from the ship as fast as we could but men had already taken aim to shoot us down.

"Come on, speed it up girl!" Fishlegs moaned.

"What are you doing, Astrid? We have to go right now!" Heather yelled to me.

Suddenly, I didn't feel right; everything started to go woozy on me… It must be about all these revelations—we were in even more danger now! I would have to undertake a multitude of procedures and I… I felt myself fall; I was falling from my dragon. In the distance, I heard Heather's voice shouting my name and moving towards me into a dive to catch me, then nothing.

When I opened my eyes, Heather was standing over me, she seemed different, and she was smiling—she must have had a nasty fright. I scanned the room while passing a hand on my face, I was laying on a bed, obviously at Gothi's. I turned my head towards Heather.

"What happened?"

"You fainted. You fell off your dragon and I caught you, barely..."

"Oh no… Did the men spot you because of me?!"

Heather burst out laughing—why wasn't she taking me seriously?

"Astrid, everything is fine… In fact, I've got something to tell you…"

She was still standing there with this radiant smile on her lips—I didn't understand.

"What? What is it? Why are you staring at me like that?" I asked, disconcerted.

She smiled again, then she took a deep breath.

"Astrid… you're pregnant!" she exclaimed.

"What? But how?" I started choking.

"That's why you've been acting so crazy lately!"

"And I don't see anything…" I whispered.

I was surrounded by so many emotions at the same time… but fear dominated. I was afraid at the idea of losing the baby once again… I couldn't handle that a second time, especially without Hiccup.

"What is it? Are you okay?" Heather asked, worried.

"Yeah… It's just— Heather, the last time I got pregnant… I— lost the baby…" I sobbed.

"I'm sorry."

"You couldn't have known," I added.

"But it's still good news, right? I mean, you're pregnant! You're gonna have a baby, isn't it wonderful?" she exclaimed.

I smiled, on the verge of tears.

"Yes!" I acquiesced, emotional.

She put her arms around me and held me very tight against her. I was full of joy and at the same time also full of fear, but I was so happy to be pregnant again that it was all I could think about.

"I'm so happy for you two…" she whispered in my ear.

Hiccup. His comeback to Berk was vital now.

* * *

"Here, enjoy…" the man said ironically.

He came to feed me in my cell daily so that I would stay alive. He threw my bread through the bars and also dragged a bowl of soup between them, then he left. I ate my bread slowly in order to stretch out this moment that had become so precious these last four months.

I dipped my bread in the soup to restore some flavor but it was still flat and stale. However, this simple action of eating was keeping me alive, so I remained hopeful. I knew that I'd get out of here eventually. I didn't receive any other whipping as violent as the one I had at my first day here. I got hit several times but nothing more. They used me for something else, for training their armoured dragons. Drago had visibly abused them and now, they were uncontrollable.

These dragons had become completely crazy and didn't listen to anything, so I had spent hours with them, helping them relearn everything. I had to make them trust and listen to me, but it was extremely difficult. When I wasn't with them, Drago invited me in his quarters and he told me about his evil projects. He was convinced I'd die before the war began and that nobody would come to save me.

I had to discuss and debate major issues with him. He was listening carefully to my remarks, but his arguments made him right—according to him, he was never wrong. Through our interactions, I learned what kind of man Drago was; a ruthless man, full of himself, believing he was above everyone else and sure to be the chief that all Viking folk had been waiting for.

Clearly, Drago was mentally ill. He was a man traumatized from seeing his family kidnapped by dragons and who wanted to get his revenge on something no longer relevant. Despite all that, at least now I knew important details of his military tactics that could help me to prepare Berk, if this war actually took place.

After a while, some men came to bring me to the training arena of the castle. I arrived in the arena and found one of the armoured dragons that I named Raspar. Drago was against naming dragons, but I had explained him the importance of a name in the climate of trust between the dragons and I and he didn't argue. It was the only domain in which I was impressing him.

I approached Raspar, with whom I'd established a steady understanding, more or less—on account of his recent arrival at Göteborg—and I caressed his head gently. So I began the training session by showing him a few exercises. Everything was going great until he categorically refused to be saddled. I was trying to quietly calm him when Drago intervened, ordering me to hit the dragon if he didn't listen.

"No! This dragon has been abused long enough," I replied.

Drago flew into a rage.

"How dare you disobey my orders?! Guards! Bring him to me right away!" he ordered.

I didn't have time to think before two of his men seized me by the arms and brought me in front of Drago. He took out a knife and asked his men to remove my shirt.

"Turn him over! You'll see what we do with guys who don't respect the orders like you!"

He stuck his knife in my flesh, and I screamed.

"It hurts, doesn't it?" he said.

He continued to carve my flesh with his knife, and with each new line he spoke to me.

"So do you think you're gonna do it again?"

"No…" I answered with an inaudible voice.

"I didn't hear, 'no' who?"

"No, Master," I struggled to say.

He ripped my skin once again, letting thick drops of blood pour down my back. The pain was becoming more and more unbearable.

"Who's giving the orders, Hiccup?" he finally asked.

"You are, Drago."

* * *

I couldn't believe it. After five hard months, we finally did it: Toothless' auto-tail was done! I was in the forge with Gobber and Heather, holding them tight between my arms.

"You can't imagine how grateful I am, I couldn't have done anything without you!" I exclaimed. "Thank you."

"Aw, c'mon, it's the least we could do to save the chief!" Gobber retorted, laughing.

"Astrid, what are you waiting for? Go find him!" Heather added.

I smiled to them and slipped away outside, the gear under my arms, looking for Toothless. He wasn't hard to find. I approached him, but he moved away from me when he recognized the object I was holding.

"Wait! You know, we talked about this... I know you didn't want to use it anymore, but this time, it's for Hiccup. I want you to save him, Bud," I smiled, eyes full of hope.

He finally approached me and rubbed his head against me, I caressed his head affectionately, then I held him tight in my arms.

"Thank you, Bud," I whispered.

I removed his old tail and attached the new one instead.

"Come on, try it!"

He flew over me and tried several maneuvers in order to check the tail's functionality, then he came down to see me.

"Well, everything seems to be working perfectly…"

I put a reassuring hand on the top of his head while looking straight in his eyes.

"I rely on you, Bud, everyone does and I believe in you. Please, bring me back Hiccup, Toothless."

He licked me over my whole face—a sign of agreement with him—and he flew away to Göteborg.

* * *

I couldn't hold on much longer in here. I had lost a lot of weight, and I couldn't get out of my cell as much as I used to since refusing to obey Drago. I spent my entire days locked in my jail, waiting and withering. I was in rougher shape than I'd ever been—plus, Drago's men were hitting me again and their instrument of choice was the whip. I couldn't sleep anymore; it was like living an endless torture, both mental and physical. The only thing that kept me alive now was Astrid. The image of her smile. She was waiting for me.

Against all odds, men came to find me in my cell.

"Drago wants to see you, in the arena," one of them announced.

I could barely stand on my feet. I finally managed to stand up, and followed the men through the narrow corridors of the castle's tunnels. Once we arrived at Drago's side, he told me that he wanted to see me for a special reason.

Suddenly, he was interrupted by a loud thud—and a cry I would have known anywhere. A plasma blast followed the recognizable cry of a night fury. I couldn't believe my eyes.

"Toothless!"

In the smoke generated by the firing, he caught me in his talons and took me away from the arena—soon, we were flying across the castle. In the distance I heard the angry shouting of Drago's men, but I didn't care anymore. I was once again a free man. Toothless slowed a moment to allow me to climb on his back, then took off immediately, flying at full speed, without any help. I leant on him and surrounded his neck with my arms.

"Thank you Bud…" I whispered. "You saved me…"

I gently tapped his head before collapsing into nothing, I need to get some rest, and since he was able to fly alone—somehow—I let myself pass out from exhaustion.

When I rubbed the sleep from my eyes, we had not yet arrived on Berk. It took a few minutes before I could see the village's imposing statues, situated not far from the isle's entrance. I was finally able to make out the shape of the village, and started to hear villagers' voices… announcing my arrival? We were very close.

I saw all these happy, relieved people but I was only looking for one person in the middle of this crowd. And I finally found her. Toothless slowed rapidly in the middle of the square. I dismounted and I ran as fast as I could to join her.

"Astrid!" I shouted.

"Oh my gods, Hiccup!" she exclaimed.

We fell roughly into each other's arms, and I clasped her to me with all my might. I was clinging to her as if my life depended on it. I tightened my grip to feel her closer to me, I needed to feel her presence, to know she was really here, with me.

"I'm… so sorry… for not being here," I murmured between two sobs. "I love you Astrid, I love you so much!"

"Shh… you're here now," she said, caressing my hair with a trembling hand.

Then, she took my head between her hands.

"And I love you…" she added, tears in her eyes.


	11. Chapter 11

_**Okay guys I know we're all loosing our mind with those whole new images of HTTYD3 but I wanted to post this chapter before everyone freaking out about the trailer xD So here we go!**_

 _ **Thank you to megtoons who translated it with me, chiefhiccstrid and JoyOfBerK who corrected and of course my dear translator whosthatgal who improved it!**_

 _ **Please guys enjoy it, there's one last chapter after this one!**_

* * *

He was there. Hiccup was back on Berk. We could go back to a normal life—well, almost. He was really thin and could barely stand on his feet. The whole gang gathered around him. Hiccup was back with us, and back to his chief duties too, but all this pressure was hitting him too soon, in my opinion. He was standing by my side and I was holding him against me, one arm around him. Heather arrived shortly after the others and moved towards us to take Hiccup in her arms.

"Heather? But— what are you doing here?" he asked.

"I'm here, that's all that matters," she said, moved and relieved to see him again.

The whole crowd of villagers was surrounding us, and it started to feel suffocating. I could tell it was getting to Hiccup. He could barely stand, and then fainted in my arms.

"Hiccup!" I yelled. "Wake up! Please Hiccup, wake up!"

In the distance, a voice rose above the others.

"Step aside! Out of the way!" Gobber shouted.

He and Valka arrived next to us and they helped me support Hiccup.

"Let him breathe for Thor' sake!" Valka screamed.

"He's unconscious!" I said, panicked.

"We'll bring him to your hut while Gobber gets Gothi, okay? It'll be fine."

I agreed with a nod and we brought Hiccup home. We laid him down on the bed and I sat down next to him, taking his hand in mine with all my strength. I couldn't lose him. Valka tried to reassure me the best she could, but she was also terrified.

Gobber finally came with Gothi and she got to work right away. She started listening to his heart and she assured us it was beating—that was a relief. Hiccup was in bad shape but we could heal him, I hoped it with all my heart. Gothi asked us to remove his clothes so that she could treat him correctly.

Gobber left the room and we started to remove his top, and we ended up taking away his pants and his shoes so we could see the extent of his injuries. There wasn't much on the chest except several superficial scratches. We examined his legs and were forced to notice that his stump was infected when we removed his prosthetic leg. Then, we lifted him by the shoulders to survey the damage on his back. And what I saw made my blood run cold. Hiccup had nasty whip scars spreading from top to bottom, all across his back.

And as for signing his work, Drago hadn't left any room for ambiguity. Hiccup had been scarred by Drago for life. This scar—I would see it every single day when I woke up. For the rest of my life it would be there to remind me it was because of me that Hiccup had been through all these atrocities. I slumped at the foot of the bed. Valka put a reassuring hand on my shoulder.

"Astrid… It's not your fault…"

I suddenly raised my head.

"Of course it's my fault! If he hadn't listened to me, we'd have gone and…"

"You'd both get captured and we couldn't have saved you. But you're here, both of you are safe. That's all that matters."

I looked at Hiccup and grabbed his hand, and held it very hard, then I kissed him.

"Drago will pay for that."

Gothi and Valka remained silent for a moment, then they ended up finding sheets, water and ointments of all kinds to heal the chief. I helped them in their task; from now on, I was going to stick to him like glue. Valka and I laid him down on his stomach so that Gothi could apply a viscous mixture onto the lash scars on his back. Then she took care of his infected leg, using several medications, each one more unusual than the last. When she was done, she explained us that he would mainly need rest, but that it was a matter of time before he woke up due to his obvious lack of food. Valka left me alone with him to go prepare what he needed for when he woke up.

I hung onto Hiccup's hand as if his life depended on it.

Valka was right—I should settle for Hiccup being here and safe, and finally reunited after these five months of torture. I was so happy to see him again and I missed him so much. Life without him had been a nightmare. I had so many things to tell him, but especially one thing in particular. I instinctively put a hand on my belly, then I seized Hiccup's and placed it delicately on it.

"We're gonna be a family Hiccup," I muttered, "We're gonna have a baby…"

I knew he couldn't hear me, but I felt the need to tell him. I was so excited to announce to him that I was pregnant! But I had to wait a little longer; it was a lot to take in. I looked at him, smiling, then I finally dozed off by his side.

When I woke up, Hiccup was still asleep and his hand was still tight in mine. I got out of the bed and went back to my chair to watch him. He was moaning in his sleep and he had this tortured expression that I couldn't bear, he must have been in pain. I couldn't allow myself to think about all the atrocities he had to endure over there… But I would have to know. Keeping it to himself was not an option, and talking about it could be for the greater good and would enable him to move on.

Suddenly, the door opened up and a green-eyed girl came in. Heather. My rock, my confidant, my strength, my best friend.

"Hey," she whispered.

I smiled to her in response. She grabbed a chair to sit down next to me, then she slung her arm around my shoulder.

"So, how you holding up? Are you okay?" she questioned me.

I took the hand she had on me and held it affectionately.

"I'm fine," I said.

"Good."

She put her hands on my shoulders and took them off for an instant to sit down on her chair. She put her hand on my right shoulder again, smiling.

"You know, everybody is worrying about you in the village. People ask me how you are and if Hiccup will recover."

"He hasn't woken up yet."

"I'm sure he will very soon," she said with enthusiasm.

"I hope so," I sighed.

"Stop being so negative, Astrid!" she exclaimed while faintly pushing me.

"I'm being a realist, Heather. You saw the state he was in when he came back… He's very weak and if he doesn't make it…" I sobbed.

"Astrid…"

Her voice broke. She took me in her arms and I burst into tears.

"I was so scared! I thought he might have been dead already, and now he's lying here near death and I can't do anything!" I cried.

I couldn't hold the spasms that were passing through my body so I let it all out, my fears, my anger, my sorrows, all of it. And Heather was supporting me, both physically and psychologically. She was there for me.

"Hey… It's going to be okay, you'll see," she said softly.

She raised my head and wiped away a tear with her thumb. She smiled to me and we had a last hug before she left for the Great Hall. I put my head again on the bed, next to Hiccup, and I sank into the realm of dreams once again.

…

"Astrid?"

I woke up with a startle when I found Hiccup with opened eyes. I bounced back hurriedly to take him in my arms and we hugged so hard that tears flew down my face.

"You're here…" I murmured.

"I'm here," he said by tightening his grip.

We stayed like that until I came to my senses.

"Oh Hiccup! I was so worried about you but thank Thor you're alive!" I exclaimed.

"And I intend to be around a long time to be with you," he declared amorously.

"With us…" I confessed.

He made his confused face, the one he made when he couldn't understand what I was saying.

"Hiccup," I said by tightening his hand once again, "I know you just came back and we've barely been together... I know that's a lot to take in all at once, but I can't keep it to myself any longer so…"

"What? What is it, Astrid?" he asked with a concerned voice.

I delicately took his hands and put them on my round belly with caution. I maintained his hands on it and took a deep breath.

"I'm pregnant…" I whispered, my voice full of emotion.

"Astrid… That's amazing!" he exclaimed and turned towards me.

He took me in his arms and we embraced, both of us overwhelmed by a new kind of love—we were overflowing with it.

I looked at him, smiling as I watched his face. I put his face very close to mine in order to kiss him. I needed to show him how much I had missed him.

"Life without you really doesn't make sense…" Hiccup admitted.

I kissed him in response. Someone knocked at the door then a young woman entered.

"Well… It looks like the chief has finally woken up…"

Heather elbowed against the wall.

"But he took the wrong food…" she added with sarcasm, smirking.

Hiccup and I looked at each other, embarrassed, then we split.

"Welcome home," she told Hiccup. "I'll tell Valka," she said to me. "See you later!"

Heather left, so we could pick up where we left off but instead, we started laughing.

"Sorry, sometimes Heather is… annoying," I said.

"You could be sisters, you two," he mocked.

"Don't complicate her situation, she already had enough problems with siblings. She's the Berserkers' chief now and it's better this way, believe me."

"I don't doubt it Astrid, she's a precious ally for Berk."

"And a precious friend," I added.

"And a precious friend," he repeated while hugging me.

The door opened on this private embrace. Valka entered, followed by Gothi and Gobber, and she ran to Hiccup and I. I stood aside. She caressed her son's cheek, smiling, then she hugged him. She whispered something to his ear that I couldn't hear and she stepped away from him, letting Gobber take her place. He smiled to Hiccup and took him briefly in his arms, then he gave him a pat on the back.

"It's good to see you, kid."

Hiccup smiled without saying a word and I could go back next to him. Gothi moved closer to us with a bowl of soup in her hands, and she gave it to him. Hiccup took it and thanked her.

"Drink, it's an infusion prepared by Gothi herself, it will build up your strength," Valka informed.

Hiccup drank the whole container in no time. Valka left the room a brief instant before coming back with a tray full of healthy things.

"You must be hungry," she said, dropping it front of her son. "Gobber and I made it," she added like it was important, Valka cooked very well.

"Thank you so much..."

"It's okay, what are you waiting for? Eat!" Valka exclaimed.

Hiccup didn't wait any longer, he was starving. He ate the entire contents of the tray while Valka and Gobber told him how I had ruled the village during his absence.

"She did very well, you know," Gobber said.

"She was very strong," Valka raised.

"I'm sure she was," he said while turning towards me, giving me a big smile.

They were laying it on a little thick—I also had my weak moments and I surely would have lost hope if Heather hadn't been there...

They continued to talk about me like that till Hiccup finished eating.

…

"You feel up to standing?" I asked.

"I think so, but—"

"Get up," I said.

He sat down on the edge of the bed and I gave him his prosthetic so that he could put it on. Gothi's cure started to take effect; his stump's wound was almost cured. He successfully stood up by leaning on me, and I helped him walk; we joined the others by the fireplace. I moved with him to the door.

"Ready?"

"Ready for what?" he asked, doubtfully.

I pushed the door, and in no time, we found ourselves in front of all the villagers who were celebrating their chief's comeback to Berk. The whole village was before our hut, cheering and screaming Hiccup's name. He was so naive… He wasn't expecting that, but he was happy. The others went out from the hut, staying close behind us.

"The village is throwing a party to celebrate your comeback!" Gobber said.

"I think I'll stay here, I've almost recovered…"

"Don't worry, we understand," Gobber replied.

"I'm staying with you," I said.

"No Astrid, have fun with the others, you need it."

"I need you," I smiled.

"Well, in that case, we'll leave you alone," Valka retorted.

"Everybody to the Great Hall!" Gobber exclaimed, followed by all the villagers.

Some of them stayed a little longer to send Hiccup their best wishes for his recovery and offer us gifts of all kinds. Once everyone left, we finally got back inside. I escorted Hiccup to our room and helped him remove his prosthetic.

"Are you okay?" I asked, worried.

"Yeah don't worry, you could have partied with everybody, you know."

"Hiccup, there's no way I'm leaving you for a second, okay? Plus, Gothi gave me instructions."

"Oh really?" he said, questioning me with his eyes. "What kind of instructions?" he insisted.

"Instructions for curing you."

"Oh."

I went to look for a bucket of hot water as well as the viscous cream to put on his back, alcohol and some other ointments of Gothi's making. I came back few minutes later with all I needed in my arms and I dropped it on the end of the bed. I sat down next to Hiccup.

"Give me your leg."

I swabbed his stump's wound and applied Gothi's cream on it. Hiccup watched me without saying a word, which was a little unnerving.

"It reminds me the time when you nursed me in your hut, when I broke my leg with the Dragon Fly Three…"

I smiled; that was the day he kissed me for the first time. I blushed internally.

"Yeah, that wasn't one of your brighter moments."

"But it was very helpful for us, right?" he said, caressing my cheek.

He leaned his face toward mine.

"I love you, Astrid Hofferson…"

Then, he kissed me as if for the first time. I kissed him back and we separated. I caressed his hair and I smiled to him.

"Now, take off your shirt."

He removed it completely, then I asked him to turn and I started to clean up the whip scars with hot water. Then, I applied alcohol and I felt Hiccup stiffen, but it was for his own good. I finally applied the sticky cream to his back.

"Hiccup… I have to ask you… What happened out there?"

"Astrid…"

"I think I have the right to know! Don't keep this to yourself, Hiccup…"

He didn't say anything for a moment so I continued spreading the thick cream on his scars. And he finally started to talk.

"After they took you, I found myself alone with Drago and some of his guards. He explained to me what he wanted from me and his plans for the Northlanders, and then, his men brought me to my cell and… they beat me...just for the hell of it."

His voice was already starting to break. I shouldn't have asked him, but he kept going.

"Then, I was so relieved to not see you detained in a cell next to me that it allowed me to hold on. I was sure you'd escaped. The first months were the least painful, I had to train dragons for Drago and I also got to have dinner with him sometimes, so I took this opportunity to eat. It was going alright for awhile….but about a month ago, during one of the training sessions, the dragon I was taking care of didn't want me to saddle him, so I didn't push him, but Drago got angry and wanted me to do it anyway and... I refused."

He choked back a hot sob. I carefully touched the scar he had on his right shoulder blade.

"So Drago definitely did that to you…"

I put my hands around his shoulders and he held my right hand fervently. I pressed my head against his back.

"He punished me, and from there things got out of hand… I got myself whipped at least once a week…"

He turned to me and took my head between his hands, he had tears in his eyes.

"Astrid… You're the only reason I'm still here today…"

He took me in his arms and held me tight against him with all his might. He ended up bursting into tears. I supported him the best I could.

"It was horrible… I thought… I would never see you again, Astrid… I love you… I love you so much…"

I finally cracked. I cried and our tears interfered as well as our repeated sobs. We stayed like that a very long time, then we finally calmed down and we fell asleep in each other's arms.

* * *

It had been a week since my return to Berk. My strength was coming back thanks to Astrid; she was a great support for me. She also brought me to see Erik, my uncle. I talked a lot with him and I understood that he wasn't the one to blame, he was only an unfortunate pawn in Drago's plan. Erik was a good, brave and loyal man, we could trust him. In fact, he knew so many things about night furies… Things no one was expecting.

He and Astrid told me how the night furies babies were born. It was incredible. There were still so many things to learn… At this rate, the book of dragons will never be done, which I was sure would make Fishlegs happy. The baby furies, who weren't really babies anymore, were adorable. Toothless was taking care of them wonderfully, thanks to this protection instinct he had a unique knack for. Toothless, my best friend with whom I was flying again.

I had missed… all of this. This sense of freedom I was sharing with my mom. My mom, Gobber, Astrid… they took care of everything in my absence. From now on, it was my turn to take back the lead.

"If I asked you to come here today, it's because we need to talk about this whole conflict that's upon us… As you know, we are at war with Drago Bludvist and we can't escape it. Drago is merciless and crazy, he will never give up. That's why we have to stop him, together. How many tribes did you convince to be allies in our cause?" I asked.

"The Outcasts, the Defenders of the Wing, the Wingmaidens, the Great North's tribes and a few from the South," Snotlout answered.

"The Berserkers will fight by your side, Hiccup," Heather added with a reassuring smile.

"Thanks, Heather. Snotlout, you will have to give me the exact number of how many tribes will follow us."

"No problem Hiccup."

"Knowing that, I have to share what I learnt on Göteborg with you … Drago told his battle plans…"

"Really?" Fishlegs wondered.

"So cool!" Tuffnut said, amazed.

His sister gave him a punch in his ribs.

"Cut it out, would ya, it's serious!" Ruff argued.

"Hey… alright, no need to yell…" Tuff pouted.

"What did you learn?" Heather asked.

So I explained to them how Drago planned to penetrate Berk and when he would like to strike. I also told them about the dragon armies he intended to use against us. I told them of the training those dragons had endured, as well as the number of men Drago had at his disposal, and the program they had; I described the battles strategies they had established, then I pointed out their strengths and weaknesses.

"Of course, knowing I escaped, I'm sure he's changed his plans—but it gives you an idea of what Drago was up to," I concluded.

"So we have three months left…" Astrid stated.

"Three months, it's not much but it's more than enough for Vikings like us!" Snotlout exclaimed.

"Snotlout is right, friends, we are Vikings… It's an occupational hazard!" I added.

Everybody stood up and raised their fists in the air, shouting in agreement. This ended the council meeting.

Once everyone had left the Great Hall, Astrid came to see me, gripping my shoulder from behind. I turned around to face her.

"I'm so proud of you, my beloved chief…" she said, hands tied around my neck.

I gripped her by the waist while drawing her close to me.

"Thank you Astrid… Thank you for everything."

She briefly kissed my lips, then she held me tight in her arms again before pulling away from me, a hand on each of my shoulders.

"Come on, leave already, I'm sure you're dying to fly!"

I put a kiss on her cheek and smiled to her before joining Toothless to fly away. Astrid knew me so well, she knew that after this kind of meeting, I needed to relieve the pressure. She understood me. And I was deeply grateful for her.

Soon, I found myself in the air on Toothless' back, followed by his little ones. We flew for a long time, heading east, finally landing on a nearby island. I dismounted smoothly and sat down on at the side of a rocky cliff, hanging out over the icy ocean. Toothless joined me right away. I caressed his head affectionately.

"You've missed it too, eh, Bud?" I asked him.

He shook his head in a groan.

"The little ones seemed to enjoy the trip anyway… Look at this, they're so tired that they're falling asleep," I sneered. "Ah, you're so lucky, Bud…"

He agreed, tilting his head slightly while closing his eyes and uttering a small affirmative roar. I rested my head on his back in order to contemplate the sky.

"You know, I'm going to be a dad too…"

He warbled happily in agreement.

"If you only knew how much it's scaring me! I'm afraid I won't be good enough… How am I supposed to become one without even having prepared for it? And Astrid would kill me if I screwed it up!"

Toothless gave me a gentle smack on the head.

"Ouch!"

I looked at him, he gave me the stink eye.

"Well, okay, she's not gonna kill me but she'll be very upset…"

I continued observing the sky.

"But you know, I'm also very excited about meeting this little one… And Astrid is very happy since she knows she's pregnant… I want to see her smile etched on her lips forever."

Toothless let out a kind of purring.

"You're right Bud, I'll learn with time…"

...

Weeks had passed, as well as months. Berkians were preparing for the war the best they could. The forge was almost always lit; Gobber had to support the village's weapons demand, which was at an all-time high. I helped him out as best I could—we needed to make enough for everyone in town.

With the help of other villagers, Snotlout and the twins were taking care of the construction of other defensive weapons like catapults and ballistas. Eret, my mom and my uncle, as well as Bucket, Mulch and so many others were taking care of the village's protection, they reinforced the infrastructure to minimize damage and withstand any major shocks.

Fishlegs, Heather, Astrid and I were in charge of the elaboration of a battle plan for countering Drago's attacks. The plan was almost finished, except for a few improvements that still had to be made. We decided together on the maneuvers during the battle. Eret would lead the ships, he would be on the front line… Gobber would command the island's defense with Erik's assistance, while Heather and I would lead the front row of the attack with Snotlout and the twins. Fishlegs would be on report. Children, young mothers and the elderly would be kept safe in the Great Hall under the protection of my mom and some of my best men. I asked Astrid to join them, but she refused categorically, she wanted to fight, she was a warrior. I finally was able to reason with her -not easily- by telling that in her condition, it was not even feasible. She obviously gave up, knowing that I was right.

Drago still hadn't attacked, but based on what he'd told me, he would strike in a month maybe, right before the first winter's frost. We only had one month to get prepared. That was the reason I was gathering all the riders every week at the academy for training sessions for a while now. We were teaching dragons how to defend themselves and fight Drago's own armoured dragons. I had allowed Astrid to come training with us despite other riders' disapproval, but I did it to make her happy. In fact, she was the best despite her pregnancy, which was now really starting to show. I had the usual tendency to overprotect her, but she only wanted to prove me she wasn't weak.

"No, Snotlout! You're not doing it right!" Astrid yelled.

She climbed on Stormfly.

"Come down, I'll show you how you're supposed to do it…" she sighed.

She perfectly executed the maneuver Snotlout had failed before landing beside him.

"Here, that's how it should be done. If you don't do these moves in the right order and in a very short time, it's your men's lives that you're putting in danger… Who's next?" she asked to the group.

Fiery. That was the word that described her at this precise moment. Astrid was fearless, she just made a fool of Snotlout in front of everyone without any hesitation, something that Ruffnut didn't miss.

"I think that's enough for us for one day," said Ruffnut. "Especially for Snotlout…" she concluded, laughing out loud.

The riders headed back to their respective huts, leaving Astrid and me alone.

"So, how does my dear lady feel after blowing off some steam on everyone?" I asked her, trying not to laugh.

"Very funny… At your concern, your dear lady is feeling really well and so is the baby, it won't stop moving…"

I slowly drew close to her and leaned my hesitating hands towards her swollen belly. She took them and put them gently on it. She gave me a smile and I could felt little kicks through her skin.

"Wow… amazing!" I said, a little confused. "A tiny future Viking!" Astrid let out a little laugh, touched by the situation.

I kept my hands around her belly and kissed her passionately. Then, with my hand, I invited her to climb on Toothless behind me. She wrapped her arms around my waist and we took off. I brought Astrid to our secret sanctuary in the farthest corners of the island. We landed next to our favourite cliff in no time, the night would come soon and it was almost nightfall. I took Astrid's hand and invited her to follow me, and we sat down at the edge of the cliff.

"What a beautiful sight, don't you think?" I pointed out to her.

"I have to admit it brought back some memories," she confessed with a smile, a hand put on her belly and the other clenched to mine.

"It's been over a year now…" I uttered.

She huddled against me and I wrapped my arms around her.

"Over a year ago, we were here, on this cliff, watching the sunset… like today," she said with a dreamy voice.

"And we are here, about to start a family and I…"

Astrid turned her head and put her hands on my cheeks, dampened with some tears.

"Hiccup… What is it?" she asked, worried.

"It's just… I realized we're adults now, we're gonna be parents and we're preparing for a war! And I think that… I've never missed my dad so much…"

I let my head rest on Astrid's right shoulder, and she ran a soothing hand up and down my back while my sobs doubled.

"I wish he was here… I miss him…"

Astrid didn't reply; there was nothing to say anyway. I only needed to feel her next to me. She tightened her grip.

"Thanks…" I whispered.

She parted from me and passed a hand through my hair.

"Thanks for what?" she asked.

"Thank you for always being there for me and being supportive."

"Hiccup, I love you, that's all," she smiled.

"And that's a lot, Astrid…"

We went back to the village at the end of the sunset. We landed in front of our hut shortly afterward, I helped Astrid climb down and before we got inside, we spotted two people's silhouettes, stepping closer and closer together—and eventually, unmistakeably kissing. Curious, we got closer to the shadows, hand in hand, and realized it was Heather and Fishlegs. We moved away immediately to give them some space…

"Seems like it's official now…" Astrid stated.

"I'm happy for them; you're not?"

"Of course I am, but Heather could've told me…" she responded, a bit offended.

I put my hand on her shoulder and forced her to look me in the eye; she smiled. We burst out laughing and we went back to our home.

The night that had followed this wonderful evening was one of the quietest and the most serene we had for months. Gradually, Hiccup regained his confidence and was getting used to the idea of becoming a dad, which made me happy.

Days passed until that morning.

We were awakened by the village's horns announcing the impending approach of an enemy on our island. Drago was here and he was coming to destroy us—but what he didn't know was that we were ready.


	12. Chapter 12

_**Okay guys, here we go, here's my theory for HTTYD3 end I made 3 years ago…**_

 _ **Now the trailer came, I've seen a LOT OF SIMILARITIES with this fic so that's why I want to share this chapter with you now. So please Guys, read it even if you don't read the rest of my story. This chapter is really important to me and I want to know your opinion on it.**_

 _ **This will be my birthday gift to Mr. Dean DeBlois because this man inspires me so much…**_

 _ **I want to thanks my bestfriend because you'll see his art in this chapter and also because this fiction is dedicated to him because like Toothless for Hiccup, he's my bestfriend. I also want to thank all the HTTYD fanartists who illustrated this fiction leffie-draws-fanart, winxrus and also raidesart ;) Thank you a lot guys! I also want to thanks all the people who helped me corrected it wolfie-dragon-rider, JoyOfBerK and chiefhiccstrid who always supported me in this fic as well as poppys-fanworld. A big thank you to my french friend megtoons who helped me translate it! 3 And above all, a big thank you to my previous translators and to my dear translator whosthatgal! Thank you so much girl 3**_

 _ **Now, enjoy it.**_

* * *

"Astrid, wake up!" I screamed, shaking her to force her to open her eyes.

She woke up, confused, and rubbed her eyes before the sound of the horns registered.

"Oh no…" she whispered.

She got up quickly and threw herself into my arms. We held each other tightly. I pushed her away gently and caressed her cheek with my thumb. I smiled bitterly to her. She held back a tear.

"We have to do it…"

"No, no! I don't want us to be apart! Not again…" she cried while holding me really tight.

I rubbed her back to reassure her as best as I could, when my mom came in suddenly.

"Hiccup…" my mom began, but she faltered.

"Astrid, Astrid… Calm down," I begged her. "Everything is gonna be okay…"

My words didn't seem to comfort her much, and with regrets, I left her in my mom's arms. I kissed her on the cheek.

"I love you, Astrid."

"Me too, Hiccup," she said sadly.

I addressed a grateful smile to my mother and got out of the house, taking Inferno with me. Toothless was not far behind. I had never seen the village so prepared; every person found their place and knew what they had to do. I ran to Heather's hut and once there, I found her at Fishlegs' side.

"Oh Hiccup, finally!" she exclaimed.

"We were waiting for you," Fishlegs added.

"Sorry, I was with Astrid and—"

"It's okay," Heather said while putting her hand on my shoulder, understanding.

Snotlout and the twins joined us not too long after, coming from next door.

"So, how's the situation?" I asked.

"Eret is leading the ships with his men, there are already a lot of casualties… and Drago's army is almost at the village's doors… Gobber and Erik are trying to slow them down as long as they can, but Drago will be here soon."

"Thank you Fishlegs; we'll be ready in time."

"Okay, so I'm going back now!"

Heather walked close to him and kissed him passionately— then Fishlegs climbed on Meatlug with clumsiness. He was a bit shook, poor guy.

"Follow me!" Heather ordered.

We moved towards the village square, very closely followed by our respective dragons. Hundred of vikings, men and women, were waiting for us.

"Your army," she declared with a smirk.

"Heather, I—"

"Come on _chief_ , go on now…"

I was afraid. Afraid of taking the floor, afraid for all these people who were ready to give their lives for Berk and were counting on me, afraid of taking my responsibilities. Then, I thought about Astrid; she would have wanted me to be strong and to take it. So I did it:

"Northern peoples, vikings, men and women, the fight we're going to lead will be difficult, there will be blood, there will be tears but don't forget the reason of this fight and remind yourself of Drago Bludvist's acts… Don't forget who you fight for and above all, don't forget what we fight for! We fight for peace! For giving a better place to our children! So fight for peace! Fight for Berk!"

I had grown in strength over my speech and I had yelled my last sentences. I never thought I'd be able to be so confident. The crowd answered me with war cries and swinging of weapons. Heather, Snotlout and the twins started it too, they motivated the troops even more. And they all cried my name… It was a strange feeling.

Once this fuss ended, everyone took their positions, and I found myself at the helm of a whole army with Heather as my right-hand.

"Form ranks and get ready!" I ordered.

I turned and found myself facing Heather who was looking at me with a shifty look.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Seems like you're enjoying it."

"Enjoying what?"

"Leading armies, of course!" she exclaimed like it was obvious.

"That's not my thing Heather…"

"Oh come on Hiccup, admit that's exciting!"

"I don't see what's exciting about leading a war, Heather. This is very serious."

She pouted and lowered her head then she turned around and put a hand on my shoulder.

"You don't look well."

I answered nothing, on the spot. Of course I didn't look well! With all this pressure that was on my shoulders, I had a hard time to think straight. Plus, I was very worried about Astrid. I hoped above all that nothing happened to her. So yes, I was totally stressed and I obviously didn't feel right. I ended shaking my head.

"Hiccup, you know, I can understand why you're worried, but you have to ignore it during battle, for your men and for Berk's sake."

"No, Heather, you can't understand. Astrid means everything to me, she's the love of my life, don't you see? And we're going to be parents… so no, I can't ignore it because if I do, I'm forgetting what I'm fighting for, Heather…"

"Excuse me… I shouldn't have said that… I know Astrid and you are having a really hard time and I—sorry."

This time, I was the one to put my hands on her shoulders.

"Heather, it's okay. It's me, I'm easy to tease these days…"

She smiled.

"Even worse than Astrid…"

Now, we just had to wait.

* * *

Valka led me with the other women and the children to the Great Hall. We were walking fast and agitation was at its peak; children were scared and wouldn't let go of their mothers' hands. We crossed the village which was outfitting the warriors with weapons, we saw the troops get co-ordinated and the dragons get prepared to fight. How I longed to be with them… We finally reached the Great Hall. Valka pulled me in a remote corner of the hall and asked me to sit down.

"Thanks but I'd rather stand," I replied abruptly.

I already had a hard time dealing with staying behind—she wouldn't force me to sit down either. I didn't belong here with all those poor people. I was supposed to protect us and I couldn't do it by staying here… I was suddenly reminded of Hiccup's words:

"Astrid, please, for once in your life, be reasonable… If you won't do it for me, then do it for the baby."

And he had put his hands on my belly. I instinctively put mine on it. Hiccup was right, it was unreasonable—but at the same time, staying here to do nothing but wait was eating away at me. I walked between the villagers' little groups; some women were singing hopeful songs while others were telling old heroic legends to children. I stopped sometimes to listen to the fables too. I was talking with people and trying to reassure them and give them hope. I continued strolling into the Great Hall until I returned to Valka.

"You really have the making of a chief's wife," she said.

I smiled at her and came sit next to her to hug her.

"Thank you Valka…" I whispered.

But we were interrupted by the sound of horns. Drago had just penetrated Berk's compound.

"Toothless, are you okay bud?" I worried.

"What is it?" Heather asked.

"He felt something…"

"DRAGONS!" the troops shouted.

Heather and I raised our heads simultaneously. Armoured dragons were populating the sky. Gobber and Erik came running, followed by their men, yelling that Drago was coming. Heather and I reacted right away by commanding the dragon riders and managing the air attack. Snotlout and the twins did the same. Gobber and Erik took the lead of the land forces. Drago's men moved by the hundreds towards the center of the village while destroying everything in their path. The fight had just begun.

I've never seen a war before and even less participated in one. The concept of battle was all new for me, so when I saw the thirty armoured dragons coming—that I had trained in Göteborg—it took me time before I gave my orders. I examined them for a moment and that's when I knew something was wrong.

"Wait!" I cried, stopping my men with a hand signal.

"What? What is it again?" Snotlout grumbled.

"Their eyes… Look at their eyes! They've been conditioned!" I exclaimed.

"You mean—"

"Yes… They've been programmed to kill us…" I whispered.

I addressed all the dragon riders out loud.

"Remember what we told you in training? Well… It's is all the more true now! These dragons are fearsome so be even more vigilant!"

"Charge!" Heather finished.

And we leapt to the attack. We killed dragons. I followed Toothless in each of his movements, fighting against dragons deprived of soul and much stronger than I have imagined. However, I didn't feel to be actor of the battle, Toothless was the one to fight to protect me. I was just a spectator of all this killing, it was all going so fast… I couldn't analyse the situation anymore… until I fell.

Toothless and I fell down in the middle of the one-on-one skirmishes that separated our army from Drago's. I was blown away by the violence I was seeing—I'd never seen men fighting like that before. A warrior didn't hesitate to stab a sword into his opponent's back or separate him from one of his limbs. Drago's men and mine were killing each other in front of me. The smell of blood was everywhere and the warriors' cries blended into those of their victims; the noise reverberated across the battlefield.

One of my enemies speed up to me, and dismounted me swiftly from my dragon. I could only count on myself to cope. He hit my arm with his arm, the shot was straight and so was the pain.

Thankfully, he had only slightly hit me thanks to my shoulder protection, which had cushioned the blow. I drew my sword in the second that followed, I needed to retaliate quickly before he could gain the upper hand. I struck at his arm and successfully freed myself from his grip. I ran through the fray, not without difficulty. I used my sword to push through the crowd and took a look to the right, to the left, looking for Toothless, but I didn't see him anywhere. In my frantic sprint through the battlefield—inevitably—I fell. I really blamed my prosthetic leg at times. I started to get trampled when I felt a hand pulling my collar— _this is it, this is the end._

"What are you doing here, Hiccup?!"

"Gobber?" I asked, opening my eyes.

He put me on the ground.

"So?" he insisted.

"Yeah… uh… I fell down and—Toothless he… I don't know where he is…"

"Well then, let's get some altitude, and we can find him, can't we?"

I clambered onto Grump behind him, and we flew over Berk to find my dragon. The battle raged on, but from the air we could see that Berk was resisting well. However, the enemy troops weren't backing down in the slightest—and I still couldn't see Drago. But where was he hiding for Thor' sake? I couldn't have the time to think about this question, Toothless was there, right below us, and he was about to be shot down by Drago's trappers.

"Right there!" I shouted while pointing the finger at him.

Grump steered us down to him right away. I stopped an arrow from hitting its target and shooting him in the heart. I ran to him to jump on his back and pat him affectionately on the head.

"It's gonna be okay bud, I'm here… Come on, taking off!" I screamed.

Gobber did the same and we dodged a final barrage of arrows. He addressed me with a nod and went back with Toothless to the other riders. I examined my dragon on the way and didn't find anything alarming, only a small notch on his left ear and some other scratches. He saved himself but for how long again? If we hadn't arrived in time, he could have been dead by now… If I couldn't protect my own dragon, how could I protect all the others from Drago? In all the commotion, I almost forgot the reason why he was fighting this war: he was attempting to cast the dragons from the surface of the Earth! So I noticed the battlefield where the men were blustering was covered by an infinite number of dead dragons' carcasses. The battle had just begun.

* * *

It had been more than five hours since the battle began outside. My patience had its limits, and this situation was really pushing them. I stopped bouncing my leg and stood up and began walking round and round in the big room with my arms crossed.

"Astrid, please, sit down…"

"No, I don't want to sit! It's unbearable, I can't take it anymore not knowing what is going on! I wanna know!" I said, fed up.

"Astrid… Calm down… you said you had cramps at the bottom of your belly, are they gone?"

"No… it's still hurting… and the baby doesn't want to stop kicking, it's really annoying…"

"That's because it can feel that you're stressed… One more reason to sit down."

"No! I don't feel comfortable when I'm sitting… Ouch…"

I gritted my teeth, I didn't want to be weak, I couldn't be.

"Astrid…"

"It's okay. I'm fine," I said, catching my breath. "I'm gonna ask the men if they have more information outside."

"Astrid, you already asked them less than a hour ago and they told you they didn't have any information…"

"But maybe now they do?" I said, a little upset.

I went in the direction of the middle of the Great Hall but before even walking two steps, I had a sudden wave of nausea due to the cramps getting closer and closer to each other. Adding to this, the kicking didn't stop. I held my belly with one hand and leaned against a pillar with the other. My head started to spin, and I heard Valka's voice calling me as she rushed to my side.

"Astrid! What's wrong?" asked Valka, apparently really worried.

"My… my head hurts… the cramps are getting worse and worse," I whimpered.

Valka took me by a shoulder and forced me to sit when we got close to a bench. She put her hand on my forehead and wiped it with a handkerchief.

"You are burning up and covered with sweat… maybe you're—"

She didn't have the time to finish that I screamed while holding onto her shoulders. It was like the pain was penetrating my stomach. I felt a hot fluid pouring down and wetting my legging.

"Oh my gods!" Valka cried, smiling. "Astrid! The baby is coming!"

I was hit by confusion.

"What? Now? Like right now?" I sobbed.

"I'm gonna bring Gothi!"

"No, no stay with me, Valka! I'm so sorry for earlier… stay!"

She stayed by my side and ordered someone else to bring Gothi.

"You'll see, everything will be fine ", she said with a calm voice.

Only, I was more afraid than anything. I didn't understand what was happening to me… I wasn't usually that emotional.

"But it's too early! I'm not ready—and Hiccup should be here! Oh my gods, I won't be able to do this without him… Valka, please, go bring Hiccup!" I sobbed.

"Astrid, calm down. I'm gonna go, okay?"

I nodded and Gothi arrived with two other women, healers maybe. Valka left me alone with them and went to find Hiccup.

"I'll be back in no time! " she said.

I stood not without difficulty and went to a corner of the hall, safe from any nosy looks. They put me on one of the hall's tables where they had many layers of sheets.

"And now, breathe!"

* * *

"Snotlout!" I screamed.

I couldn't see him through the flames that were eating the stables. Catapult attacks had set the stables on fire and we were trying to save trapped baby dragons inside who were too young to fly. Everybody got out with babies in their arms except Snotlout, who was still inside. I screamed his name again—no answer.

"Hiccup, we still need to evacuate all these dragons…" reminded Heather.

"But we can't just leave him!"

"Hiccup…"

Just then we saw a shape emerging in the midst of the flames—it was Snotlout, not without burns, but alive.

"Snotlout! Oi, oi… oi!" he chanted, punctuating each word with a cough.

"Snotlout! I thought you were…"

"Dead? Oh come on Hiccup…" he said dryly.

I was relieved—Snotlout was safe and we could continue our improvised rescue. We were making our way as fast as we could from the stables to the Dragon Academy, when suddenly I saw my mom riding Cloudjumper towards us at full speed.

"Hiccup!" she yelled.

She finally drew up by my side.

"Mom? What are you doing here?"

"Hiccup, you need to come. It's urgent…" she began.

"But I can't leave the battle! I'm commanding an army, and…"

"Astrid is giving birth!"

"Uh…what?"

"You're gonna be a dad!" she smiled.

"What, now? But I…"

"Go, Hiccup!" Heather reassured me. "I'll take the lead, don't worry. Go!"

I let my friends go under Heather's command and I joined my mom. We headed in Astrid's direction, flying once more over the battle that was under us. We finally arrived behind the Great Hall; my mom invited me inside and kept our dragons outside, not without Toothless' disagreement. Dodging our way through the crowd of elders and children, we made our way to the back corners of the hall where curtains, made out of two sheets, were standing. I stopped before going in.

"Go on, go, she's waiting for you," said my mom before pushing me in.

Astrid was lying on a table, legs spread and her back raised; she was in pain. I ran to join her by her side. When she saw me, she let out her tears. I held her tightly against me.

"Hiccup… I was so scared for you… I'm sorry…"

"Shhh… I'm here now," I whispered while caressing her face.

"Okay Astrid, let's go again," ordered one of the women who were assisting Gothi. "One, two, three… push!"

Astrid's face twitched when she did what the healers told her to do, but she shook her head left to right, completely helpless.

"I can't!" she moaned.

I didn't know what to do to help her, so I took her hand and I sustained her back to support her.

"Come on babe, you can do it!" I cheered.

So she pushed once again while tightening her hold on my hands, letting out a long painful scream before taking a breath again.

"We can see its head!" said Valka.

Astrid turned her head to me with a smile, and I smiled back to her.

"Just a little more Astrid…" I said rubbing her back.

"One more time, push!"

Astrid pushed with all the strength she had, she yelled in pain and soon, her screams were joined by other, smaller cries—those of a baby, our baby.

"It's a girl, congratulations!" said one of the women.

Gothi cut the last thing that linked our daughter to her mother and showed us a little newborn, dirty and covered in blood. Astrid didn't even have time to catch her breath before Gothi put the little girl in her arms. Astrid took her carefully and held the child gently against her chest. A big smile drew on her lips, she was filled with joy.

"Hiccup… we made _this_ …" she sighed, happy.

I caressed her hair and I kissed her cheek, I was the happiest man in the world.

"I'm so proud of you Astrid… you fought till the end."

"Thank you Hiccup, thank you."

I was about to answer when a massive sound echoed in the room—it was an explosion.

"I'm gonna see what that was."

"Hiccup!" yelled Astrid.

I got out and saw men trying to reinforce the main door which had just been damaged.

"Hiccup! What are you doing?" my mother exclaimed.

"I need to see what happened outside!"

I went out from the Great Hall and hurried to go before it. When I finally reached it, Heather was there with a few men to protect the Great Hall's doors from… Drago's attacks. He was on a huge dragon and was laughing out loud about my men's fate. I joined them to help and Drago addressed me.

"Eh! Finally, here's the Dragon Master! I thought you'd never come out of your hole…" he said.

"Drago…"

"Now, let's finish it!"

He had yelled the last words. He started to shoot at anything that moved but his true target was me. I turned my head to see where Heather was when I heard her screaming:

"Hiccup! Watch out!"

She stood in front of me before I took Drago's shot. The violence of the impact drove me about ten meters away, I searched to scout the area but I could barely see and then there was nothing.

 _It was dark, I hated the dark. I was afraid of the dark because I couldn't see anything and it made me nervous so I lit a candle. I was alone at home. Daddy wasn't home yet. So I waited for him while drawing. And one hour later, I heard the house's heavy door opened, I hurried in the direction of the door to see Daddy._

 _"Daddy!" I yelled._

 _He took me in his arms and hugged me tightly. I loved when Daddy held me like that._

 _"I came to say goodbye, Son. Daddy's leaving for a very long trip, okay?"_

 _I sulked, I didn't like when he was leaving for a long amounts of time._

 _"Why are you always leaving for a long time Daddy?"_

 _"Hiccup, you know it's to find the Dragons' Nest. I have to go for a long time, that's how it is. But Gobber will be here."_

 _"But I want you to stay with me!"_

 _"Son…"_

 _I didn't want to listen to him anymore, I went back to my room to lock myself in it. I sat down on my bed, brought my legs against me and started to cry. I was sad Daddy left, he never listened to me…_

 _After a while, I heard big footsteps on the stairs, Daddy was climbing. Quickly, I dried my tears with my arm and I put myself under the heavy blankets. Daddy entered with a candle in his hands. He knew I was afraid of the dark. He put it on the bedside table next to me. He leaned next to me and kissed my forehead. I took him in my little arms and held him very tight._

 _"Good night Daddy."_

 _"Good night Son."_

 _I put my head on the pillow and he tucked me in. Then he bounced back and left in the door's direction but before he got outside, I addressed him one last time before he got away._

 _"I love you Daddy."_

 _I heard the door shut._

 _"Me too Hiccup, me too."_

I felt my eyes about to open but I fell into nothingness again.

 _Toothless was slowly moving towards me with those terrifying eyes. I begged him to stop but he kept going._

 _"Stop!"_

 _That's when my dad came out of nowhere._

 _"Son!" he cried out._

 _"Dad! No!" I screamed._

 _My dad jumped in front of me and took Toothless' kill shot._

My dad had saved my life, and Heather had exactly done the same thing.

I opened my eyes. Toothless was over me and protecting me with his wings. I looked around me and saw Heather down, a few meters away. I stood up quickly and ran to her. I took her in my arms, she was still breathing but her face was pale and her eyes almost closed.

"Heather! Please, stay with me, Heather!" I shouted.

"Hiccup…" she whispered.

"Yes?" I sobbed.

"Thank you…" she said, closing her eyes.

"No! No, Heather! Don't leave me! Heather!"

Heather was dead in my arms. No words could define my pain. She was like a sister to me. I cried while holding her her cold, dead body against me, inconsolable.

I was tired of always being protected, my dad, Heather, Gobber, Toothless, Astrid… I couldn't let anything like that happen again, it was out of the question. I was going to put an end to this, once and for all.

Fishlegs and the other riders came shortly after the incident, he was distraught. Enough people were taking care of Heather now, so I could go. Some people tried to stop me, but I was more determined than ever. I mounted Toothless and took off at full speed. My goal: find Drago.

Toothless and I looked around us, but Drago was not hard to find. He was nested on the edge of the island with his gigantic dragon. Once I was close enough to him, I asked Toothless to fire his most powerful plasma blast, and it made him fall from his dragon.

Toothless landed only few feet away from him. I climbed down and threw my fire sword on his cutting pike. I didn't miss my target, I took his stake, got my sword back and threatened him with both, making him recoil. He raised his hands while laughing unrestrained, insanely.

"So? What's the Dragon Master is gonna do now that he has weapons in his possession?" he sneered.

He could laugh as much as he wanted, but he didn't scare me anymore. I moved towards him, more intimidating this time.

"You had no right! She didn't do anything!" I shouted. "She was innocent!" I called out.

The rage tensed my words up.

"You will pay for what you've done Drago… For everything you've done…"

I rushed over to him and stabbed his stake right in his heart. He instinctively reached down to weapon that had sealed his fate, and staggered back. He fell down from the bank and sank into the ocean.

I had done it in anger, but part of me was still celebrating. I just put an end to the war.

I flew away on my dragon's back to the Great Hall, where the doors were standing open. I rushed inside to meet Astrid, who was waiting for me in tears. We held each other tightly.

"Hiccup… What've you done?" she sobbed.

I put my head on her shoulder, powerless and lost, on the verge of tears.

"I killed Drago…" I confessed with an inaudible voice.

She slightly moved away from me to put her hands on my shoulders and read my face.

"Hiccup…"

"I know, I know… It wasn't how I wanted it to end! But Astrid, I'm tired of being protected… I'm the one that has to protect you! A chief protects his own…"

She brought me back into her arms to hold me tight against her once again.

"What are you going to do now?" she asked after a while.

"I need to see our daughter first, then I'll tell you."

She took my hand and I followed her to the other side of the hall, my mother was waiting for us, our baby in her arms. She gave the baby to Astrid, who then gave her to me. I held her carefully, rocking her gently.

"Hello, you…" I said, gently whispering.

My nerves disappeared and a tear rolled down my cheek, I was so happy.

"My little dragon…" I smiled. "I already love you so much if you only knew… Daddy will always be with you… always…" I said, leaving a small kiss on the top of her head.

"Heather. Her name is Heather," Astrid inquired, bending over me while putting her head on my shoulder by holding me against her.

"Heather…" I smiled, moved.

…

"Are you sure about it?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'm sure Astrid. I will not go back on my decision."

"All right, then."

"Let's go."

I grasped her waist and we moved outside, hand in hand, to the village center. Astrid let me take the place on the small platform before the other villagers gathered around me. I waited for silence and I began.

"People of Berk, today is a day of mourning for all of us here. We've won the war against Drago, but the sadness and pain he brought us will be with us for a long time. A chief protects his own, and today, I failed to protect you. I've been told often that I was a peaceful man, but I killed a man today. I was supposed to bring our worlds together, but look at this mess! Hundreds dragons and men died today! This kind of bloodshed will never happen again, because I can still make one decision to protect us all."

I paused.

"I declare dragons exiled."

Disagreements erupted immediately among the villagers, but I kept going, raising my voice.

"There have always been men like Drago and there always will be. If he's not the one to exterminate the dragons, somebody else will! As long as dragons live with us, they won't be safe and neither will we. That's why I'm asking for this exile, for the common good. I know it's hard for you—it's hard for me too—but it's for the best, believe-me."

A deafening silence started to fall when, suddenly, they began to make a sign I easily recognized. It was my father's sign, a fist raised to the top. Soon, the whole village made the Viking' salute. They just approved my decision.

Farewells were extremely difficult to make. Every vikings and their dragons had met on the middle of the village to say goodbye one last time. It was very emotional to see the love we had for them expressed like that. I wasn't exiling them for nothing, and my people knew it. If we wanted to save them from extinction, that was the right thing to do.

I arrived at Toothless' side. Astrid and Stormfly were close to him, their arms full. I caressed the head of my dragon while looking straight in the eye, I smiled faintly at him. I presented him the auto-tail I made for him and Astrid had remade. He started to step back, I held him back.

"Hey… Toothless… I know you don't like what is going on. But I'm doing this for your sake and you know it," I sniffed.

He approached and rubbed up against me, then he licked my head. I slightly laughed and hugged him once again.

"Thanks Bud."

I installed his new tail and made sure it was working before standing in front of him.

"Here you go. It'll serve you more than me…" I said, joking.

Astrid came behind me and moved towards Toothless, wrapping her arms around him.

"Goodbye Toothless, thank you for everything you've done for us…" she murmured.

She relaxed her grip and put her hand on my shoulder before stepping behind me again. I took Toothless in my arms one last time.

"I will never forget you, Bud. You're my best friend… I'll see you in Valhalla…"

He seemed to begrudge and made a sad noise. I finally released him and stepped back to find Astrid's embrace. She grabbed my waist while holding me tight against her, supporting me as best she could.

Every dragon gathered around Toothless, who gave me a last look before flying away. All the others followed him and few wingbeats later, all the vikings were already at the island's borders, calling to their dragons one last time while waving goodbye. Two tears rolled down my cheeks as I watched the dragons flying away forever.

…

 _ **Four years later…**_

"Daddy! Tell me more about dragons!" Heather exclaimed.

"Heather, it's getting late…"

"Please!" insisted the brown-haired and blue-eyed girl.

Astrid came inside the room and sat down on the bed, next to her daughter.

"Come on Hiccup, if it makes her happy!" Astrid added.

I sighed. I couldn't refuse anything to the two greatest women of my life.

"Fine, what do you want to know?"

"Tell me how you became friend with Toothle!"

I laughed heartily.

"Ah sweet heart, it's _Toothless_ …"

"Oops… Sorry," she apologized while smiling.

I came closer to Astrid and her and started my tale.

"There were dragons when I was a boy…"


End file.
